Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance (7 page)

“We’re going to be caught in thei
r cross-fire!” Bren yelled over com- as if I wasn’t already aware.

“Really
,” I replied sarcastically though my concentration was fully on the job at hand- that of piloting Last Chance with our lives in the balance, “I thought they were the Welcome Wagon come to make us at home in their neighborhood.” Bren didn’t reply- probably scared I’d lose my focus as I ripped Last Chance past a boulder half the size of us but which would demolish us with the merest scrape. Tanya began firing again which meant a clear avenue had materialized between us and our port-bow attacker.

Tanya was the gunner and I was the pilot for a simple
reason. I was the best damn pilot in the Universe but I couldn’t perform miracles. I didn’t have the time to
look
at scan much less be expected to pilot the ship
and
target the enemy. If
she
had seen the avenue they could have seen it and I was busy heaving on Last Chance’s yoke to pull us out of that avenue before the enemy could get a lock. These were the times why I kept Tanya around, whatever
her
reasons for staying. She had the fastest reflexes of any human I had ever seen, faster than most reptiles- and that
is
fast. The red photon beam came out of nowhere as I had expected but it only burned through the vacuum where Last Chance had just been. As I gained the cover of one of the last large asteroids on the outskirts of the field I did take a moment to look at scan;

“This is why I keep
you
around.” I told Tanya. It was now two against one. She had silenced one of the attackers.

“You couldn’t keep yourself alive if I wasn’t around.” Tanya said as she opened up on the next target on her scan, though the blasts were just marching across the monstrous asteroid beneath our keel as I raced Last Chance
towards the end of it, open space and direct confrontation with the second of the bow attackers. I held Last Chance on a steady course and Tanya kept her gun locked and firing on the enemy as we flashed past the end of the asteroid and back into open space. The blasts of white/yellow fire marched right off the end of the asteroid and flashed across the span separating us and our target.

The red photon beam which instantly speared out at us- we
flew right into their targeting lock- dissipated just before striking us as Tanya’s fire found the enemy first and extinguished its fusion producing capabilities. Any effective weapon’s fire had to get to its target quickly and I was suddenly amazed all over again. It traveled more rapidly than a photon, whatever
it
was! I supposed that in a more restful moment I could ask Bren the mechanics of my new cannon but the thought soon slipped away. We had just sailed on past the end of the asteroid and the first the enemy saw of us was the white/yellow blinking of Tanya’s cannon and then nothing more.

“One to go.” Tanya said as I heaved a sigh of relief- quietly.

“You may have recalled that I mentioned wanting one of those.” Janice said over com as both she and Melanie now turned their efforts to our stern, pouring the plasma back into the asteroid-field while I continued to accelerate out of the field.

“Where are you going?” Tanya suddenly demanded.

“Warping out of here.” I said, meaning to do just that.

“Not quite yet you’re not.” She r
eplied meaning it, never wanting to leave enemies behind if it could be helped- especially the bushwhacking kind- but it was already clear there would be no other option. She would get no further argument from me I realized as I glanced at scan. The alien marauder was going to reach the outskirts of the field and have us in range before we attained warp velocity. We were not going to be allowed to run.

“
I’ve got them where I want them now.” I said.

“Aye-aye
Captain
!” Tanya said with an amused laugh- murder and mayhem always cheering her. Especially when she was the one doing the murdering and especially when it was somebeing in such clear need of being murdered. A cut-throat pirate is always in need of murder, in Tanya’s opinion, I had noticed. She’d crew with a pirate though I wasn’t the bushwhacking kind. I didn’t need to be the bushwhacking kind when all I had to do was show my face and trouble was sure to arrive. Tanya would always go out of her way to kill these types when they inevitably arrived though she had never shared her reasoning for her ruthlessness when dealing with them. If she held some particular enmity for them or if it was simply an opportunity- as I surmised- to vent her frustrations through murder. I knew very little about her motivations other than what I could see for myself. Despite our years together I still barely understood her. Tanya shared sarcastic comments and that was about all.

I swung Last Chance in wide curve
back around that last asteroid to keep the asteroid itself between the last enemy and ourselves. The marauder was just on the other side of the asteroid and was going to come out the same end we were at nearly the same time.

“I’m going to roll us past the end of
this
asteroid.” I told Tanya as I thought about that photon beam and how close that marauder was going to be to us when we both hit open space on the opposite side. “I’ll
try
to bring it about just as we pass.” I was going to barrel-roll us past the end of the asteroid and simply leave it up to Tanya to get that last-moment lock and light them up. If I timed this correctly Tanya’s cannon would rise into firing position just as Last Chance passed the end of the asteroid while our sudden change in vector hopefully throwing off the alien’s first shot. If it missed its first shot it wouldn’t get a second, or at least that was what I had planned because if I couldn’t make it miss at this close range we were going to mutually destruct. I was not the type who would be happy as long as I took my enemy with me. Tanya just glared at me, probably thinking I was only doing it to make her job harder since she was the one who had brought it to my attention. In a way she was right but mostly I just wanted to live and once again that was in question.

“Stay sharp back there.” I told Melanie and Janice- they knew who I was talking to and they had scans so
knew what was coming.

“Bring it on.” Melanie said, hoping to at least stripe the enemy before Tanya’s cannon obliterated it. She got more than her wish as the alien ship came around the curve of the asteroid and we passed one another no more
than meters distant. There was just the flash of a strange dark ship racing across my screen and then gone. It came firing knowing we were there. Knowing we knew it was coming. Knowing it was flying into sure mutual death but no longer caring. I rolled Last Chance fully as I had planned but didn’t time the difficult maneuver quite correctly and we passed the end of the asteroid before the roll brought Tanya’s cannon around and into play.

The strange enemy ship
had no means of propulsion I could see and was moving much faster than I had anticipated. Though my roll was late bringing Tanya’s gun into play when I underestimated its velocity it did succeed however in throwing off the marauder’s targeting. The strange ship lost its lock and passed right under Melanie without firing. It was little more than a blur as it went under us but Melanie striped it down its entire length- and right across the photon cannon just as they reacquired lock and it fired. The explosion occurred behind us as I quickly accelerated for warp. I’d had my fill of this sector of space.

“By the way Marc, you don’t
keep
me around.” Tanya said as Last Chance gained warp and she rose from the gunner’s station to seat herself at the warp-scan imager. “Nor will you ever know my true motivations.”

Chapter 16

“We seem to have eluded our enemies for the moment.” Tanya said three days later when I came on the Bridge
again
to see if she was still there. She was as I knew she would be, not that I was ever far away, but this visit was different than the last. Tanya’s constant vigilance was beginning to wear into her reserves. Eyes bloodshot and clearly exhausted she still had a surprise in store for me. “Now to the business of finding our Empire!” She added.

“I’m not so sure that’s
a good idea.” I said. I had been thinking about it a lot and the more I thought about contacting these Alartaw the more I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. “With Bren’s knowledge of Alartaw science we’ll have every bit of their technology- anti-gravity, trans-metal… everything. We don’t need to contact them nor do we need to broadcast our location to the Kievor!”

“I thought you might see it that way,” Tanya said bluntly, “but we won’t live through another encounter with a Kievor Trade Station and there isn’t far enough to run.
We’ll have to take our chances that the Alartaw will respond first once they are aware of who we are. The only reason they haven’t come is because they aren’t aware of us. We have to make them aware.”

“What if they’re already aware and just don’t care?” I asked to a stony uncaring look.

“That’s just a chance we’ll have to take.” She replied. “The boldest course seems to be the safest course- at least amongst present company.” Just then Bren entered with a look I recognized. Maybe they thought they hid it well but it was always immediately clear when they were in cahoots. If they weren’t arguing I knew they were plotting.

“I believe I may happen to have the
instrument you require.” Bren said though he didn’t appear to be carrying anything.

“Then let’s get it operational.” Tanya said.

“What if it gets us in contact with the Kievor first?” I asked. “I hate to sound repetitive but…”

“The Kievor
will
detect us in warp eventually,” Bren interrupted me, “and probably much sooner than eventually. I’m more scared not to try it than I am in just waiting for the Kievor to show up. It’s only a matter of time before they track us down.
I
could track any ship with Alartaw technology so I know
they’ll
be able to, and the Alartaw must be made aware of us. When they get this signal and realize you’re alive they’ll come.” He glared at me after making his little speech.

“And just hope these Alartaw get to us first!” I said. “Great plan. What if these Alartaw aren’t interested in us?
What if the war is over and they lost? What if there are no more Alartaw? What then? You broadcast that signal and we know the Kievor will be on their way.”

“They’ll find us anyway.” Bren said. “The Alartaw are our only hope.”

“The device!” Tanya said impatiently.

“
Yep.” Bren said as he seated himself at communications and inserted a small chip into the com circuitry. I didn’t look and wouldn’t later- I wouldn’t know what I was looking at- and that why I kept Bren around. Why Bren
stayed
around was a question I doubted even he could answer with all his genius but thank the stars I had him. I’m sure it was only insanity that kept any of them around- insanity seems to breed upon itself- and if any of the stories Bren had told of my exploits as an Alartaw were even remotely true it would seem I had infected the entire Alartaw Empire as well. I was the carrier spreading my disease everywhere I went.

“How long’s that going to take?” I asked.

“Oh it’s broadcasting.” Bren said as I stood to depart. I sat back down.

“Oh.” I said, very much feeling the insanity at that moment. I buckled myself in. “I suppose that Melanie, Janice and Manuel already know the plan?”

“Yep.” They chorused over com nearly as one.

I really hated it when they left com open but it would
really
be insanity not to do so. “You people are truly out of your minds.” Was all I could think to say because though I was the Captain and owner of this ship suddenly I felt very much a passenger- or even captive- for the control I had over the circumstances which were about to unfold around me despite my will. Nor did I have any doubt that they would expect me to get them out of it once again when the Kievor did show up. In my opinion they were writing our death certificate but what exactly was I supposed to do about it. It wasn’t a matter of whether the Kievor would show up once we began broadcasting that signal but when they would show up and I didn’t think it would take long. “I guess someone has a plan?” I asked though I knew the answer to that question.

“Of course.” Tanya said. “We’re
going to wing it, just like we always do.”

I knew I shouldn’t have asked.

Chapter 17

As the days
passed and still no sign of anybeing following us I was able to feel vindicated that it would have taken the Kievor a long time to find us. That meant very little now that we had been broadcasting our location all over the Universe. Nor did I doubt it would matter that the
location
we were broadcasting from was traveling through warp and across untold spans of real-space. Such things did not seem to matter when the technology involved was so advanced it might as well have been magic- check the crystal ball and see where the enemy is. We had crossed unimaginable spans in that time though it had only been a short time since Bren had activated his beacon. Seven short days of constant stress and worry, knowing the days wouldn’t continue to pass uneventfully forever. The thing that was bothering me the most though, I think, was that I was sure the very moment I poured myself a drink the warp-proximity alarm would start ringing or even worse, it would wait until I’d gotten a few down. Alcohol definitely slows the reflexes, not that I hadn’t been
forced
to fight through a battle or two
slightly
under the influence. It was sometimes a nightly occurrence aboard the Trade Station, but that was with other intoxicated combatants- I have never seen an intoxicated Kievor and I would never drink if Last Chance herself was in danger. If Last Chance was in danger I was in danger.