Renegade (12 page)

“Whoa,” said Lisbeth as they got close. “I just… the com feed just got taken over, I think… is that
Phoenix
?”

“Just put it through,” said Erik, watching the mass of stand-off traffic now either leaving, or holding position so as not to risk
Phoenix
blowing them to bits. There in close parking orbit was
Annalea,
a strike cruiser with half
Phoenix
’s complement and a quarter its firepower, yet deadly enough at these ranges. Also
Reggio
and
George F Latz
, fellow Alpha Squadron Firsters. “
Phoenix
this is the LC, who’s in command on
Annalea, Reggio
and
Latz
?”

“
Um… one LC and two commanders, all three captains are downworld.
” Good news at least when they ran — these three would be reluctant to follow without their captains, and most of their crew.

“Anyone up here have full crew and command staff?”

“
I’m sorry sir, we don’t have full records on everyone.
” Because Fleet, of course, didn’t tell lower ranks shit. And outside of combat ops, ships tended to mind their business. “
We’re just asking around, getting the gossip. It’s likely some of the outsystem ships have full crew.
” Because, being located in the outer system meant they were doing security, and hadn’t participated in the parade and celebrations.

“And no one’s talking?” It was hard to speak, flat on your back at 4-Gs for the past thirty minutes. His augments helped, keeping blood in the brain and muscles from cramping, but still it was exhausting.

“
No sir, not a word. We’re not in the loop of whatever HQ’s saying, but we broke into their channels — they’re talking a lot about you murdering the Captain, and nothing at all about how you escaped from custody.
” There was a hopeful note to Lieutenant Shilu’s observation.

“That’s because Major Thakur busted me out personally, and my guess is they don’t want it known.” Because Major Thakur was known to be incorruptible. Any number of people would believe he’d murdered the Captain, because he was a Debogande with all the shady big-power interests that brought into play. People would always buy conspiracy theories about well-connected power players. But if it were widely known what Major Thakur had done to get him out, a lot of people would start doubting HQ’s version.

“
Sir. Should we broadcast that? We’ve got an audience out here.”

Heck of a thought, Lieutenant Shilu. But there was that shuttle, docked at Fajar Station hub, loading the last of their crew, and very vulnerable to Fleet’s sudden whims. “Let’s wait until we’ve got the rest of our people aboard, Lieutenant.”

“
Aye sir. We’ve got you on near-scan now, confirm your current approach as within combat parameters.
” Meaning he wasn’t breaking any rules according to the kind of rules
Phoenix
was accustomed to running by. “
Sir, what is your manifest?
”

“Myself, my sister Lisbeth, Major Thakur, Lieutenant Dale, Private Tong, Private Carville, two marines I didn’t get a good look at, and… Lis, you bring anyone else?” Because he’d gone straight past upper level crew without looking.

“My four personal security,” Lisbeth said weakly, her voice strained. It was at about this time, in Academy runs when recruits did a 4-G push for the first time, that you started wishing you’d black out and wake up when it was all over. In a pilot’s chair, that wasn’t recommended if you wanted to graduate.

“
Copy that, four more civvies plus your sister.
” God knew what they’d make of
that.

At three klicks out Erik cut thrust and flipped them end-over so they could see where they were going. Homeworld glowed blue and white to one side as they approached the night-side once more, while Balise glowed huge and red on the other. The colossal steel bulk of Fajar Station rotated slowly by, twin wheels affixed to a central axle, fifty berths to each wheel-side, two hundred in all with smaller vessels squeezed in the middle between the wheels, larger on the outer rims. Fajar had over three million people at any given moment, a lot of them transitory from on and off those vessels.

Phoenix
’s com feed now linked into nav, and gave him ship names, mostly civvie and mostly human, though three of the two hundred were chah'nas, and another two kuhsi. In parking orbit nearby, another hundred and seventy one, and quite a bit of that was military. Insystem freighters were thankfully few, they mostly used the smaller industrial stations that processed the bulk freight most insystem traffic dealt in. But some of that was Debogande-owned…

“Shuttle’s undocked,” said Lisbeth, and Erik looked and saw that with his own eyes, a tiny silver speck lifting from the station axle’s huge protruding docking cone. “I think they’re going to beat us there.”

Manifest came through on the shuttle — Lieutenant Chia was the pilot, one of the shuttle specialists and very skilled. The rest were mostly first-shift plus a couple of his third-shift crew… Dean Chong was there, his buddy who’d come to the Debogande party after the parade. Several others, all he’d be very glad to have back.

And then Chia was on coms. “
All Fleet ships, this is Lieutenant Chia commanding shuttle PH-2. We are commencing flight return to Phoenix with thirty-six Phoenix crew aboard.
” It was
general
coms, Erik saw — Chia was talking to everyone, on general frequency. “
Request that you do not point guns at us, we’re all friends out here, and if you seriously think LC Debogande killed our Captain you’ve got rocks in your head.”

Erik’s blood ran cold, and his heart nearly stopped. “Oh god no Chia, shut up!” But he dared not broadcast it.

“Our traffic is that Major Thakur busted our LC out of the brig herself, and if you think she can be bought by the LC’s money you’ve got even BIGGER rocks in your head…
”

A flash came from station. The silver dot departing the docking cone vanished in a bright flash. All transmission stopped.

“
LC this is Phoenix!
” Second Lieutenant Shilu yelled in shock. “
They fired on PH-2, she’s hit!
”

“
Phoenix
this is your commander!” Erik replied. “Find who fired that shot and destroy them! That is a direct order!”

“
Sir… sir, I think…”

“
LC this is Shahaim,”
came a familiar voice — Lieutenant Suli Shahaim, first-shift Helm, technically fourth-ranked on Phoenix, and acting captain. “
We fix that shot came from a docked ship, Berth 30, that’s Gloria out of Halifax, armed Fleet merchant.
”

“Lock a viper solution and strike with terminating round.”

“
Sir, target is affixed to station…
”

“I fucking know that Lieutenant! Either you kill it, or every docked ship under Fleet control will assume they can fire on
Phoenix
vessels without retaliation and then this shuttle is dead, and
Phoenix
will be under fire shortly thereafter!” He flipped channels to general broadcast. “This is LC Debogande of
UFS Phoenix
, unarmed
Phoenix
shuttle PH-2 has been destroyed by a shot from Fajar Station, you all saw it. This is how HQ deals with anyone who speaks out of turn — first Captain Pantillo, then me, now thirty six innocent Fleet lives. Let this stand and you’ll all be next. Advise Fajar Station in proximity to Berth 30, brace for impact.” And he just hoped to god that Shahaim did actually fire, or he’d look like the biggest idiot possible.

A small flash from
Phoenix
’s side, and a small missile flew. A tiny fraction of
Phoenix
’s arsenal, arcing out wide as it acquired the plotted trajectory. “We’re moving,” Erik advised them, and hit thrust hard. “
Phoenix
we’re coming in hot, prepare to leave, don’t wait.” Because however justified, they’d just fired on station, and in spacer moral code that was like punching your grandma. Of course, grandma wasn’t supposed to stab you in the back with a steak knife either…

The gradually approaching warship suddenly came up real fast. Erik stared at the tumbling wreckage of PH-2 as they passed it… there were only fragments, it had been a mag-rail shot and at these ranges and velocities there wasn’t much a shuttle could do about it. Thus his haste.

“Lisbeth!” As the shuttle hit midway, and he cut thrust once more and rolled for braking. “Get your mask on girl!” A flash on station, the missile striking, and the offending freighter lost a good portion of mass, and probably most of any lives aboard. “Get your mask on and give full control to your environmentals, we’re not going to have time to make the bridge, we’re going to have to ride out the run in the shuttle, you understand?” Because at 10-G thrust the body acquired all the utility of wet jello, and even blinking was an effort. And so was breathing… oh fuck. “Lis, when you took the shuttle course, you augmented for Gs, right?”

Thrust thundered them back in their seats once more, Erik squinted hard as he matched the cross-hairs on nav to what he saw via uplink in his head —
Phoenix
’s number-three docking grapples, back from the crew cylinder amid-ships before the engines.

“Yes!” Lisbeth said shakily. “Full G-augments, Daddy insisted!” Thank god. The human body wasn’t designed for 10-Gs for more than a minute or two — at prolonged stretches it would kill an unaugmented person via unconsciousness and suffocation.

Crosshairs matched, Erik hit thrust for a final 6-G shove as they came in too fast, then cut, and the grapples clanged. “This is AT-7, we’re aboard, grapple readings good!”

“
This is Phoenix, we read green grapples on this side too.”

“Punch it!”
That was Shahaim, and
Phoenix
’s mains hit them with a hammer blow that made the shuttle’s thrust feel like child's play. Erik thought someone was shooting, but his vision compressed in the Gs and made it hard to tell. He closed his eyes and fought for breath, short, hard gasps with muscles tensed head to foot. This was why all spacers loved uplink visuals — with his eyes closed he could see all main systems like a head up display, in high-G push it was priceless. But though he had a good feed, he didn’t have command feed, and he couldn’t see projected trajectory, or armscomp, or nav assessment… and damn he hated that. He hadn’t even liked it much when Captain Pantillo was flying, and while Suli Shahaim was good, she wasn’t the Captain.

There was a thud and lurch, and for a second he thought the grapples had broken — it was nearly impossible, but AT-7 was a civvie shuttle of slightly different configuration. Then a flash outside the windows, then some more… that was countermeasures, someone
was
shooting, but he didn’t know if they were shooting back. Nav showed them already fifty klicks from station and accelerating fast… they couldn’t pulse until about fifty thousand, the physics of FTL were brutal to ships that pulsed too deep in the gravity well. At 10-G, fifty klicks turned into fifty thousand in no time at all.

“
Oh my god!”
That was Lisbeth, in panic and pain. Ten-G at length was horrifying if you’d never done it before. You wanted to die, but couldn’t lift a finger to kill yourself.

“
Lis! Lisbeth, listen to me. I’m right here, you’re going to be fine.”
Uplink vocals were just as important as visuals now, because even if you could move your jaw, you couldn’t get a proper breath to push air through your larynx.

“
How much longer?
”

“
A few minutes Lis, then we’ll pulse and the thrust will come down a lot, I promise.
” Actually it didn’t come down a lot, it came down a bit, but if lying to your sister was ever acceptable, it was acceptable now. “
We have to get clear of Homeworld and Balise’s gravity both, you understand? We can’t pulse until we’re clear.”

Balise was only average-sized as gas giants went, but Homeworld was only its second-biggest moon. And now nav was showing a storm of insystem traffic, all of them cutting thrust and just hoping
Phoenix
would miss them. There were also a lot of rocks out here, and dust clouds and other very good reasons to approach insystem navigation a lot more cautiously than this.
Phoenix
was pretty good at vaporising small rocks, but at these speeds the auto-countermeasures didn’t distinguish much between rocks and small ships.

The grind went on and on, and then everything inverted as the world caved in on itself…

…Lisbeth at age seven, at Academy graduation. Erik was in his dress uniform straight from the final parade. The families were assembled in the function room, everyone giving the Debogandes and their security a wide berth. But little Lisbeth had run to him, and he’d picked her up, and taken the little kuhsi doll she gave him. The doll fit in the palm of his hand, was cute and furry with big ears in a Fleet officer’s uniform. For luck, she’d said, when you go to fight the tavalai. And had been a little disappointed that he wasn’t going
immediately
, and that he’d still have another three years of training before they allowed him anywhere near a starship’s controls…

…and out again, a blurring disorientation of everything coming back together, but not quite where it had been.

“
Pulse one,
” he said back to the others. “
Lisbeth, you okay? Lisbeth?
” A cockpit camera showed her unconscious, and probably just as well, as Gs were still 8.5. Nav showed them hurtling now, jump cycle having traded energy for velocity, over one percent of light and building. Hitting anything bigger than a grain of sand at this speed would kill the ship.
Phoenix
’s scanners were very good at spotting and evading all such grains, and countermeasures even better at evaporating anything they’d missed. In deeper space the odds of even grains of sand were astronomical, but this close in it was never safe…

…Lisbeth at age nineteen, crying before his deployment to
Phoenix
. Because somewhere in her teenage years the realisation had set in that her big brother wasn’t immortal, and lots of people’s big brothers and sisters weren’t coming back. ‘Don’t worry Lis’, he’d told her. ‘
Phoenix
is a legend, and Captain Pantillo’s a genius. There’s barely ten ships in the whole fleet as advanced as
Phoenix
. The tavalai won’t know what hit them.’