A Taste Of Despair (The Humal Sequence) (16 page)

*****

Hamilton watched the sensor console with a considerable amount of surprise. The PDC’s that Tantalus Station had launched after them had initially started to catch them. Once he had thrown the throttles wide open, however, it had been a different story.

The
Morebaeus
had steadily increased the range between itself and the pursuers. Eventually, one after another, the PDC’s had given up the hopeless chase and returned to the station.

Tantalus Station’s Port authority continued to rage at them to return to the berthing ring, threatening dire consequences if they did not.

For once, it appeared as if luck had been with them. Tantalus had asked for military assistance in bringing the freighter to heel. The only two vessels capable of doing anything had already been dispatched to deal with a “rogue customs vessel” and were currently unavailable for “civilian” assistance.

Even as this was being chattered about over the comms, the
Morebaeus
sensors detected a hyperspace jump activation from across the system. It corresponded to the jump point they had preselected for the
Ulysses
if they needed to make a fast getaway.

Hamilton read between the lines. The military had chased the customs vessel because it was part of the fleet, one of their own. From the comms traffic they could pick up, that had not gone as well as they had planned and both the
Triton
and
Shiva
were now involved in “recovery” operations somewhere on the other side of the planet. Tantalus had told them the second stolen vessel was a freighter. As far as they were concerned it was not important. A civilian vessel. Nobody knew who had stolen it, or why.

Even so, whatever had happened to result in “recovery operations” had to have been pretty embarrassing for both warships to want to tidy things up so quickly. The
Ulysses
, Hamilton suspected, must have made fools of the pair. They were reluctant to get involved again and compound their foolishness over what amounted to a civilian vessel being stolen.

The captains of the two ships would no doubt face some awkward questions over what had happened. The fact that they were also ignoring a request for assistance from Tantalus Station was also not likely to do any of them any favors.

But none of that was their concern. The
Morebaeus
was homing in on its own jump point. That was all that mattered. In another few minutes, they’d be out of the system and on their way to the rendezvous site.

“Give me a hand, would you.” Hamilton asked Johnson. He pulled the throttles back to a position that would allow them to leave their seats and move around, then stood up.

After the exertion of the space walk, his muscles had cramped up somewhat. It took him a few moments to shake the tight feeling off. Then he and Johnson, who seemed to have less issues with stiffening up, dragged Lewis down to the nearest crew cabin and put her on one of the beds.

“She looks dreadful.” Johnson observed.

Hamilton nodded. “Psi testing is pretty invasive and horrible.”

“Why would they do that? I know she’s not the most likeable of people, but still…”

Hamilton shrugged. “It’s not her, per se. It’s the normal procedure for anyone showing active talent.”

“But why be so…brutal … about it?”

“Psions are seen as dangerous. A long time back, there was one that basically came close to causing a civil war. Set himself up as a warlord and had a lot of backing. Backing that he had gained with his particular talent, which was manipulating other people’s minds. Planting ideas in their heads, making them like him etc. The Empire stomped on him, of course. But the damage he’d caused with his manipulation continued. The people he’d affected continued to support him, even though he’d been killed. Saw him as some sort of martyr. Continued the fight without him, as it were. It took a long time to shake all the monkeys out of that particular tree.”

Johnson frowned. “So, because you find one bad apple, the entire crop is assumed to be rotten?”

“That’s the basic thinking.” Hamilton agreed. “Psi testing is performed at an early age. There’s a simple test, or scan, that determines whether you have the talent, latent or not. If your shown as latent, all is well and good, but the test is mandatorily repeated throughout your lifetime. If you’re shown as active by the test….” He gestured at Lewis. “This is what you can expect.”

“Seems barbaric.” She muttered. “What does this even accomplish?”

“As far as I know, it measures the level of activity and type. Basically they find out what she can do and how dangerous she’s likely to be.”

“And if they had deemed her to be a danger?”

He shrugged. “No one knows. There are so many rumors. One says abandonment on an uninhabited world. Another says solitary imprisonment. Another says lobotomy or “corrective surgery” as they call it. Some say they just put a bullet in your head, or you get spirited off to some secret lab to be a guinea pig. But all of the rumors are uniformly not favorable to the victim.”

“It just seems so horrible.” She wrapped her arms about herself.

He nodded. “Welcome to the future!”

“Is there anything we can do for her?”

“Let her sleep, is the best course. They probably pumped her full of all sorts of drugs anyway. I don’t want to give her anything until those have had a chance to work through her system.” He replied.

She nodded. Back towards the bridge, a beeping began to sound out, growing slowly louder.

“We’re coming up on the jump point.” Hamilton stated, moving past her and heading forward. She cast another look at Lewis, then followed him.

Hamilton had resumed his pilot’s position and was throttling back the engines to idle. The
Morebaeus
, of course, continued to hurtle through space at its current velocity.

“Ready?” He asked Johnson.

She nodded, clambering into her seat. “Let’s get out of here.”

As the freighter passed through the coordinates they had preplanned the jump from, the automated systems took over, activating the hyperdrive and causing the stars to vanish ahead of them, replaced by the gray-green murk of hyperspace. There was no fuss or drama during the transit. The
Ulysses’
tech boys had done their job well.

Hamilton started to lean over Johnson again to look at the nav console but stopped himself. She looked at him with a certain amount of amusement.

“Could you take a look at the nav screen and see how long it’ll take us to get to the rendezvous.” He asked.

She glanced over to her left. “Hmmm. I don’t know. There are a lot of numbers here. I’m not sure I know what I’m looking at.”

Hamilton frowned. “It should be clearly marked.” He started to lean again and stopped himself.

“Oh! I see it.” She said. “No, wait. That’s the time. Hmm…nope, I’m not seeing it.”

“Oh for!” Hamilton leaned over and read the data he wanted straight away.

She was desperately trying not to laugh.

“Oh hah ha!” He muttered, sitting back.

“I’m sorry.” She burst out. “I couldn’t resist it!”

“You’re not funny!”

She laughed. “No, but you are!”

“Well, Miss Laughalot. I’m sure you also saw how long we’re going to be in hyperspace as well. Nine days.”

She nodded, grinning still. “Nine whole days. What can we get up to in order pass the time, I wonder?”

Hamilton stared, not certain if he was hearing what he thought he was hearing. “I…”

She shook her head sadly and climbed out of her chair. “Is the makeshift camp we built when we first came aboard still there?”

“I guess so.” He answered. “They’d want to keep everything intact for the investigation.”

“Well then,” She smiled impishly. “I’m going to make use of that shower unit we set up, if it still works. I suggest that, once you’ve put the ship on auto-pilot, or whatever it is you have to do, that you also take a shower on account of the fact that you stink!”

“Gee thanks for the compliment!” Hamilton murmured.

As she walked aft, she added. “Depending on how long you take up here, I may, or may not still be in the shower when you get there!”

It was a moment before that last comment registered, intent as he was on flipping switches and making the ship’s systems safe. When it did register, he turned to look after her, but she had already disappeared from view.

He turned back to the controls and sat, frowning for a moment.

The he was flipping switches and hitting buttons as fast as he could manage. In record time, the ship was made safe for its journey through hyperspace.

Then he was running down the corridor as fast as he could manage.

*****

Sometime later, he and Johnson lay snuggled up in the bed that he had used five years ago when they had all come aboard the
Morebaeus
.

The makeshift camp in the cargo module was utilitarian. Beds, partition dividers to give a little privacy, and some storage for personal items. They had set up some portable toilets at one end, and a shower unit that was part of a portable chemical decontamination facility. The cargo modules had provided for all their needs, even if some items had to be repurposed a little.

The pair of them had made use of the shower units endlessly recycled water and stayed inside for a considerable time, exploring each other. Finally they had moved to his bed, where the explorations had continued for even longer.

She was plucking at the hair on his chest idly now, whilst he ran his fingers up and down her back. They had spent their pent up energy and frustrations and now, with everything they had been through, both were close to exhaustion. It wouldn’t be long before they were asleep.

“How come we didn’t do this before?” He asked.

She shrugged. “Too many people around. Plus you always seemed so busy.”

“I suppose.” He agreed. “But we were here for the best part of three months fixing this boat up to get us home. How come we didn’t find time in all that?”

“There’s a time and a place for everything.” She told him. “Then just wasn’t the time.”

He chuckled. “I’m glad we did find the right time and place.”

She smiled up at him. “It was a hell of an effort! You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this! In the end I had to stand naked and wet in front of you to get you here!”

He laughed. “Actually, it was the suggestion of you being naked and wet that finally did it! My imagination was more than up to the task of visualizing that.”

She grinned.

“Although,” He continued. “I have to say the reality was much more satisfying!”

She squeezed him tightly. “That was the right thing to say.”

He snorted. “Make the most of it. I usually say all the wrong things!”

“You’re doing fine at the moment.”

“Why me, though?” He frowned.

“I might as well ask you the same question about me.”

“You’re…interesting.” He said.

She smiled. “Interesting as in…interesting? Or interesting as in ‘May you live in interesting times’, interesting?”