Dubious Heroes: a novel Page 57

  "Point taken", I said. "Belay the coordinates."

  "Alongside the Defender", Angie said. "Firing grapplers. I have one hit, three misses. Reeling in to try again."

  "Incoming missiles", Kyra said. "I suppose evasive maneuvers are out of the question."

  “Very funny", I said. "Talk to me, Angie."

  "One more hit, two more misses", she said. "I can try again in ten seconds."

  "You don't have ten seconds", Kyra said. "Torpedo impact in nine, eight, seven..."

  "Hang on, Vassily", I said. "We're going for it. If it doesn't work, we'll come back for you and try again."

  "Three, two..."

  "Engaging transit", Angie said, and then there was darkness.

  The first thing I heard this time was the incessant beeping of my comm link on the console. I touched a button, and Cozi appeared on my screen.

  "For fuck's sake, would you please let us know before you do that?" he said, testily. "The whole alarm and countdown thing, which everyone besides you seems to do, would be nice."

  "Sorry", I said. "If we'd taken the time for the niceties, we'd have had a couple more torpedoes up our ass. I don't imagine that would have been good for your new engines."

  "Whatever", he said. "Where are we now?"

  "No idea", I said. "Kyra picked, and we didn't have time to chat about it."

  "The Defender is with us, and in tow", Eng said, looking over from his station.

  "We're between Earth and Mars", Kyra said. "Just outside the local asteroid belt. There used to be some people here who might be able to help us. I've no idea if they're still here, or if they are, how they'll react to us."

  "How do you think they'll react?" I asked.

  "Sixty-forty they just destroy us", she said, shrugging. "Still, they're definitely not UP."

  "Fuck me running", I said, running a hand through my hair. I'd had quite a few stressful days since leaving Luna, but this one was getting ridiculous.

  "The Defender isn't the only ship that came through with us", Eng said. "That UPDF frigate apparently followed us through."

  "The ship that's like ours?" I asked.

  "Yup", Eng said.

  "How is that possible?" I asked. "We never sent the coordinates. Angie?"

  "I sent them to the Defender", she said.

  "Why?" I asked. "I canceled that order, and I know you heard me."

  She was silent for a moment, then spoke.

  "Um... you know when you said that if Kyra thought something was dumb, you'd pretend to agree with her, but I was supposed to do what you wanted to do, anyway...?"

  "I don't think that's exactly how I put it", I said, wishing I could crawl under my console.

  "I can replay it", Angie said.

  "Please do", Kyra said. She did not appear amused.

  "Belay that", I said. "We can sort this out, later. Right now we have company we need to deal with."

  "They must have snagged those coordinates", Eng said.

  "Told you, dumbass", Kyra said. I thought of trying to explain that I actually had agreed with her, but I suspected my argument would fall on deaf ears.

  "What's our power level, Cozi?" I asked.

  "Check your console, Captain ", he said.

  "Fine", I said, and killed the connection, thereby reducing the number of people annoyed with me by one.

  "We're at fifty-five percent", Eng said.

  "Hail that ship", I said. "Might as well put a name and face on them, before they start shooting at us again."

  "They aren't responding", Angie said. "We've entered the asteroid field. There's nothing in our immediate path; it's not like Vega; the rocks are all spread out."

  "We're being fired on again", Kyra said. "Plasma cannon. Oops, we're not the target; they're hitting the Defender."

  "That's kinda low", I said. "Return fire, and teach them some manners."

  "Incoming missile", Kyra said, as she rapidly tapped at one of her vidscreens. "It's from ahead of us, a launch from an asteroid. Damn it, I thought they'd at least talk to us, before doing any shooting."

  "That's a miss", Angie said, "I repeat, a miss. The missile passed by us to our port."

  A moment later, the entire ship lurched, and all of our sensors went black. Several alarms sounded at once.

  "What the fuck was that?" I asked, as I tried to get any of the external sensors to respond.

  "Thermonuclear detonation, forty-two clicks aft", Eng said. "Knocked out all of our sensors. Nothing had been ported,"

  "It knocked the Defender loose, too", Kyra said. "The electromagnetic pulse overrode the grapplers. That, or the shockwave."

  "Redeploying grapplers", Angie said. "Bringing backup sensors online, now."

  "I didn't know we had backup sensors", I said. I wondered how I’d missed that nugget of data.

  "We do", Eng said. "Get these fried, and we're blind."

  "Guess we can call that one a near miss", I said.

  "I'd call it a direct hit", Kyra said, looking at the now-functioning tri-d radar. "That UP ship that was back there? It's not back there, anymore."

  "Damn", I said. "Kinda glad they weren't closer to us."

  "We still took a shitload of radiation", she said.

  "Is that the technical term for it?" Eng asked, smiling.

  "Try ninety rads, smiling boy", Kyra said. "More than enough to fry your nuts, assuming you're thusly equipped."

  "Shit", Eng said, paling a couple of shades.

  "I have the Defender in tow again", Angie said. "They aren't answering my hails, though."

  "Their sensors and comm were probably knocked out", Eng said. I hoped he was right.

  "We're being hailed", Angie said. "Audio only."

  "Put em on", I said.

  "Unidentified ship", a female voice said. "You are to immediately decelerate to full stop, kill your engines, and take all weapons systems offline. Should you choose not to comply, the next missile will have your name on it. Do you copy?"

  "This is Captain Orel Doon, of the Revenge”, I said. We copy your instructions. Angie, do as she said."

  "Aye, Captain", she said. "It will take us one hundred thirty four minutes to come to a complete stop, with a two gee decel."

  "Ah..." I said, "Whoever you are, did you copy that?"

  "We did", she said.

  "Okay, we're doing as you ordered", I said. "What now?"

  "In about two hours, we'll send someone out to escort you in. Any suspicious activity from you or the other ship will get you both nuked. Clear?"

  "Crystal", I said.

  "Out", she said, and that was that.

  I turned in my seat to look over at Kyra. I felt the ship move, as Angie turned us, to begin the deceleration. It had to be a massively complicated maneuver, with the Defender in tow.

  "Once we've turned, I'll link up with the Defender again", Angie said. Okay, so it wasn't that complicated, after all. I turned my attention to Kyra, who was studiously ignoring me.

  "Alright", I said, as she looked up at me. "Who are these guys?"

  "Used to be the remnants of the Earth Defense Force, and the Mars Militia, or at least those who left when the United Planets took over the military on both planets. I'm not sure if these are the same people or not."

  "Hell, that was before any of us were even born", Eng said. "When's the last time you were out here?"

  "It's been awhile", she said, but didn't elaborate.

  This went on, more or less the same way for the next two hours, with us asking her questions, and her not giving us much in the way of answers. Finally, we reached dead stop, and something new happened.

  "There's a ship approaching", Angie said. "Looks like a shuttle. It came from an asteroid about a hundred clicks ahead. We're being hailed again."

  "Onscreen", I said.

  "Audio only", she said.

  "This is Captain Orel Doon of the Revenge", I said.

  "Permission to come aboard", a male voice, deep and raspy, said.

&nbs
p; "What happens if I say no?"

  "Then we back off, and nuke you", he said.

  "In that case, permission to come aboard granted", I said.

  The transmission ended, and I unstrapped from my console, wobbling a bit in the zero gee.

  "I suppose I should get down to the main airlock, and welcome our visitor", I said. "Mister Eng, you have the conn."

  I rode the lift down to the lowest Habitat deck, where the main airlock was located. I exited the lift to find Cisco and Malach waiting for me, in full combat gear.

  "Hi boss", Cisco said. "Where are we going?"

  "Main airlock", I said. "We have at least one visitor coming aboard." They fell in step behind me, sticky shoes skitching as we walked around the corridor. "Try not to shoot anyone, unless you're itching to get us nuked."

  "Duly noted", Cisco said.

  We arrived at the airlock, then had to wait ten minutes for the shuttle to dock. I spent the time pacing around the area. Despite all the waiting we'd been doing, I still wasn't particularly good at it. It was a relief when the hatch cycled open, and a lone, large man walked in.

  He was a little taller than me, with a heavier build. He was old, though just how old, I couldn't tell. The hair on his head was completely white, contrasted by bushy red eyebrows. His eyes were a lively opaline green. He was wearing a tan uniform that bore no insignia.

  He stepped forward, and extended a large, beefy hand.

  "You must be Doon", he said, his voice rumbling.

  "I am", I said. "And you?"

  "MacPherson", he said, as we shook. His grip was vise-like, and I tried not to wince. I might have succeeded. He released my hand.

  "Just call me Mac", he said. "Everyone else does." His voice was so deep, I not only heard it, but could feel it, as well.

  "Nice to meet you", I said. "Thanks for taking care of our pursuers."

  "That was a UPDF ship", he said, "Which makes the pleasure all mine. We were about to take care of you, too, when someone suggested that it might be interesting to see who'd pissed off the UP so thoroughly. It's not often you see em shooting at one of their own ships."

  "It used to be one of theirs", I said. "We liberated it."

  “Yeah, we’re aware of current events and your story”, he said. “We just didn’t know it was you at the time.”

  “There’s been a little media coverage”, I said, shrugging.

  "Now there’s an understatement", he said, smiling. "By the way, don't do anything rash, but as of this moment, you're all my prisoners."

  "I thought that might be the case", I said.

  "Nothing personal", he said, "but your presence here is one huge fucking problem for us. You just had the extreme misfortune of wandering into the wrong place at the wrong time. As it stands, we have two choices; we can either kill you all, or we can hold you, indefinitely. Either way, you won't be leaving anytime soon.”

  "We didn't exactly wander in", I said.

  "Pardon me?" he said, as the corridor door slid open, and Kyra walked in.

  She smiled, stepped up to Mac, stood on her toes, and kissed him on the cheek.

  "Hi, Grandpa", she said.

  Chapter 40

  Mac had berthed those of us on the Revenge on an asteroid with the unassuming name of Byron's Rock, and the crew of the Defender of the Crown on another, simply known as Spike's. All of the rocks in the area had been mined out decades earlier, and the miners had moved on to other parts of the belt.

  Vassily and I were to have a private dinner aboard his ship, so I found a shuttle to take me over. Fortunately, it knew the way, since the Sol asteroid belt was a lot more spread out than the Gamma Delta belt in Vega had been. Sometimes you could see from one asteroid to another, though usually not, since asteroids were, by their nature, kind of small and dark. If you didn't have them plugged into your nav system, you'd play hell trying to figure out which rock was where.

  Admiral MacPherson and his people had been very hospitable to both of our crews, going as far as helping us with repairs, and hosting a few dinners and parties. Still, they maintained an air of secrecy, both about their base, and themselves. I could understand their caution; they'd been out in the belt for a long time, and as long as no one knew exactly where they were, they were safe.

  I kept my eyes and ears open, and from what I could see, I figured there were maybe ten thousand people in the rogue colony, scattered across a couple dozen asteroids. There might have easily been three times that number, especially if they were better at hiding than I was at snooping.

  The United Planets Defense Force had been running the militaries of Earth and Mars for decades, which made Mac and his people rebels, even though they didn't consider themselves as such. As far as they were concerned, they were loyalists, and the UPDF was an occupying force. How the rest of the galaxy viewed it would largely depend on who ended up writing the history books. For now, they called themselves the Independent Defense Force, and we were their allies, more or less.

  The shuttle landed on the asteroid, and we made our way through the typical warren of passageways, all of which looked as though they'd been cut with a mining bot. I never did meet anyone named Byron or Spike, but I tried not to let that ruin my day.

  We eventually reached the Defender, and I cycled through the airlocks into the ship, trailed, as usual, by Cisco, Donner, Malach, and Jones, all in full combat gear. I suspected they'd be handy to have around, should anyone try to assassinate me again, or if I felt the sudden urge to invade a small country. Again.

  Dinner turned out to be just Vassily and myself, dining alone in the Officer's Mess. Cisco and his cohorts had their dinner in the main mess, joined by some of the Defender's crew. The chef had prepared a hot meal for us; some gloppy Russian stuff that stood little chance of floating away in zero gee. I imagine it's an acquired taste. Once we'd dispensed with the pleasantries, we got busy eating and drinking.

  We'd been in the asteroid belt for four days, and as such, hadn't had time to go over what had transpired, prior to their reappearance. Now seemed like a good time.

  "So", I said, between bites, "What have you guys been up to?"

  "Well", Vostock said, "After you vanished, I decided we didn't want to be hijacked anymore. I called over to the pirate ship, and suggested that they cut us loose, as we had plans elsewhere. They declined. Apparently, they were not aware that the Defender is equipped with, among other things, a plasma cannon. I demonstrated this for them, and they wisely decided it would be best for everyone if we went our separate ways. They left as quickly as they could, though not before we were able to hit them with a few torpedoes to remember us by."

  "Too bad you couldn't teach them a more permanent lesson."

  "Have you ever tried to chase someone through an asteroid field, especially one like in Vega?"

  I shook my head no.

  "I don't recommend it. While we attempted to pursue, they knew the area better than we did, and it only took them a few minutes to outdistance us. Once they were outside of weapons range, I halted the chase. I couldn't see any point in the risk, when I knew we wouldn't catch them."

  "So, all this time, you guys were just hanging around in the asteroid belt?" I asked.

  "I had a hunch you'd be back", he said, smiling. "Besides, there seemed to be some interesting activity in the area. So, we hid out on one rock or another, and observed. By the way, we did find the Princess of Arabia cruising around, looking for you. I advised her to leave the asteroid belt, and get within range of somewhere that has Speedlink. I imagine she's still in the system, probably around Skydome or Providence, waiting to hear from you."

  "Thanks", I said. I'd completely forgotten about Winifred, and the massive ice freighter. I still didn't have any idea what to do with her, unless we could convince her to go back to hauling ice. "I'll send word to her once we figure out what we're doing."

  "Da", he said, as he sipped beer from a softpack. "As I was saying, we waited in the asteroid belt, until you reappeare
d. We were watching when you started shooting torpedoes at the hidden base. The only other excitement we had was about a week ago, when the base sent a shuttle out to see if someone was hiding where we were, well, hiding. Their shuttle never returned, and they didn't send another."

  "We only fired one torpedo at the base", I said, trying not to sound defensive. "And that was just to get their attention. You're obviously more patient than I am, and when my patience ran out, I decided to make something happen."

  "That could be you motto", he said, smiling. "Make something happen. Put it on your uniforms, perhaps."

  "Very funny", I said. "It doesn't sound nearly as intelligent when you say it that way."

  We both looked up, as the chef stuck his head into the dining mess, to see if we needed anything else. He returned a moment later, with two more softpacks of beer.

  "I wasn't criticizing", Vassily said, "Just making an observation."

  "Nevertheless, it's a valid point", I said. "I imagine you've heard, ad nauseum, what we've been up to."

  "Since we got here, and have easier access to Speedlink now, I can see you’ve been busy", he said, politely. "I imagine that being the Scourge of the Galaxy is time consuming, as well.” He smiled wickedly.

  "Tends to make certain people want to shoot at you", I said. "By the way, sorry about the whole botched rescue thing."

  "No harm was done, in the end", he said. "We weren't really in need of rescue, until we lost our fuel cells. In the final tally, we took out at least one UP cruiser, and led another one of their new frigates to its demise. Not a bad day, overall. Which brings me to why I've asked you over..."

  "I can imagine you have a few questions", I said. "One big one is probably what now?"

  "I believe the Admiral would be pleased if we joined his group, and helped their effort", Vassily said.

  "That's funny", I said. "I was thinking it might be useful if he joined up with us."

  Vassily smiled.

  "It might prove easier to do, if he thinks it's the other way around", he said.

  "Too true", I said, smiling. "How do you feel about working with his outfit?"