5


The Jellybird emerged from the slip tunnel. Several tense intervals passed before Henshaw piloted the Lady Faith out of the shimmering aperture behind us, immediately accelerating and veering away as we had planned.
“Jelly,” I said, “deploy the sensor relays. Make sure they are concealed.”
“Concealed, in this circumstance, is not a precise term, Captain,” Jelly said. “What we are actually doing is operating them on an ultra-low power mode.”
“That’s what I meant, Jelly,” I said, smiling because the ship’s AI was always so respectful and polite. Maybe being a captain of a ship wasn’t that bad.
I was impatient to get going but let them finish scanning the area for debris or ambush. It had not taken me long to convince the others this was necessary as part of our standard operating procedure. Since I had already performed this maneuver and knew it was unnecessary for Henshaw, watching him go through the steps was tedious.
But no one would learn anything if I just told them it was clear every time. Because I always went first, just like when we cleared rooms or searched a new world or went through slip tunnels. Going first into the breach was my right.
No one understood how to take these risks better than me and I couldn’t let them go ahead of me to get themselves killed.
Some people claimed all slip tunnels had the same appearance, but I thought they were unique, each a bit more miraculous in their own way.
Maybe I was a romantic, an artist trapped in a killer’s body.
“Hail the LF,” I said.
“Right away, Captain,” Jelly responded.
“Henshaw here. Are you receiving my transmission?” the ocular engineer and owner of the Lady Faith asked.
“I hear you clearly. You don’t have to raise your voice,” I said. “We are only detecting one slip tunnel anywhere near enough to reach before the Union catches up.”
“If the Union can find us this far out,” Henshaw said.
“We discussed this. Just because we didn’t see them as we neared the last slip tunnel entrance, doesn’t mean they weren’t right behind us,” I said. “Plot parallel courses two hours to the next slip tunnel. Let’s call it a race.”
“The Lady Faith is one of the fastest yachts in its class. I believe that this contest is undignified,” Henshaw said, moderating his voice to a more reasonable level now. He’d owned the ship for a long time but rarely piloted it himself. “You can just advise us to accelerate to our best speed. It doesn’t have to be a competition.”
“Whatever works,” I said. “Speed is our only option right now. There’s one slip tunnel. And when, not if, the Union shows up, you’ll wish that you’d started accelerating the moment you left the tunnel.”
“Now that is a rational argument. I don’t understand why you must call it a race,” Henshaw pouted.
“He doesn’t want to lose,” Elise said, sitting up from the copilot seat where I thought she had been asleep.
“That is not true,” Henshaw said. “But if I did desire to participate in a race, it would be a sanctioned event with rules and referees.”
I listened to Elise and Henshaw go back and forth but watched the holo display and checked the Jellybird’s instruments. There were dozens of things that the ship did automatically, but I still needed to know about.
My early training, long before I became a Reaper, emphasized being prepared for the worst-case scenario. Few ships were piloted without help from an artificial intelligence, but there were scenarios when it became necessary. It was good to keep up my skills.
I went so far as to make calculations by hand. Not my strongest skill set by any stretch of the imagination, but it could be done.
After a time, I realized the conversation between Elise and Henshaw had ended and she was looking at me expectantly.
“Well, shouldn’t the Union carriers be through the tunnel by now? I think we’re in the clear. He’s trying to convince me that they can operate inside the tunnels with their cloaking devices on,” Elise said.
I knew a lot more about the darker aspects of the Union fleet and their technology than they did, and I didn’t want to talk about it.
There were, however, some things my friends needed to know. “It’s possible to operate a ship inside the slip tunnel, but the technology is very rare.”
“In that case,” Elise admitted, “it may be wise to be paranoid.”
“Paranoia is never wrong,” I said, only half joking.
“If you’ll allow me to finish,” Henshaw said. “I will admit that we should be cautious, but it still seems a good deal of time has passed since we entered the system. If we did manage to lose the Union carriers on that last tunnel choice, then we should be in the clear for months at least.”
“Do you have any tricks to detect them while they are in stealth mode?” I asked.
“You know I’m working on several theories,” Henshaw said in a lecturing tone. “But the only one I know would work right now would require us to slow down.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“It’s extremely complicated. I can send you over the algorithm code for your review,” Henshaw said.
“Do that. I’m sure X-37 and Jelly would love to take a look at them, and Tom,” I said.
Henshaw smirked somewhat condescendingly. “Tom is very good at what he does. But these calculations are complex.”
“Fine,” I said, considering whether or not I had any other options. “Tell me when you have something that works at full speed. In the meantime, the last person to the slip tunnel entrance buys everyone else Starbrand cigars.”
“When you put it that way,” Henshaw said, but didn’t finish the statement.
“Captain, it appears the Lady Faith has been holding out on us. Her speed is increasing dramatically,” Jelly said.
“Can you beat her?” I asked.
“Of course, Captain,” Jelly said.
“Then get to it,” I said, and watched the readouts change. It was tempting to take manual control just for grins, but I didn’t. After several tense moments, I grew accustomed to the acceleration and leaned back in my captain’s chair, interlocking my hands behind my head.
Eventually, Elise grew bored and started playing a puzzle game on a tablet Tom had given her. She seemed determined to unlock each level of the game faster than he had. Henshaw was wrong to underestimate Tom, I thought.
Surprisingly, I found my thoughts clear. There was no compulsion to remember my dark past or worry about the future. Such moments were a gift and I valued them.
It couldn’t last forever, of course. The trip to the next slip tunnel was long, but we were going as fast as possible.
We took turns on the bridge, Tom spending his time communicating with Henshaw about the stealth mode, then reporting to me through detailed reports. They had decided that the Jellybird was the better option for testing stealth mode. The Lady Faith wasn’t as durable and had a smaller power plant.
We kept busy. I even let Elise have a solo shift. Everything was fine until I relieved her.
The door slid open and I entered the bridge area. Elise sat up, pretending she hadn’t been about to doze off.
“I see you managed not to fly us into a black hole or get us caught in a Union ambush,” I said.
Her expression changed at my flippant remark. I had to give her credit for not flying off the handle. I had sounded like a dick.
“I’m glad you have so much confidence in my ability,” she said sarcastically, clearly not meaning a word of it. “To be honest, I thought manning the helm would be hard. What do you even do when we’re not here?”
“Important ship piloting stuff,” I shot back, pretending to be annoyed. I wasn’t.
She hesitated. “Now you’re just messing with me.”
“Yeah, something like that,” I said.
“I made a log entry. Nothing seen or detected. After the Jellybird completed her scans, I checked them manually as well. You made it sound like the calculations would be difficult,” she said, not actually seeming to be talking trash this time. She’d switched into her “take me seriously” mode.
“Okay, show me,” I said, then looked over her work. It was top-notch, detail-oriented, and recorded in chronological order.
When we were done, she turned her chair so she could face me and held my gaze. “You’re going to have to trust me more. You and I, we’re in this to the end. You know what I’m saying.”
I understood her statement. Neither of us could escape the Union, not really. Tom, Henshaw, and Path might fade away with hopes of hiding from Union operatives. The Dreadmax mission had shown me how far they were willing to go to take out Elise, and I’d only made things worse.
“We’re liabilities to the Union,” I said.
“So, what are we going to do about that?” she asked, sounding confident but looking slightly more vulnerable than normal. It was an odd combination, but I understood it; she was trying to appear braver than she felt.
“I’m working on it,” I said, and was surprised when she didn’t argue.
* * *
We arrived at the next slip tunnel with no sign of Union pursuit. “Jelly, broadcast an all hands to the bridge, please.”
“I have made the broadcast,” Jelly said seconds later. “Omitting the message to you, of course.”
“Thanks, Jelly. You’re the best,” I said, continuing to study holographic displays and sensor readings. My unscientific gut instinct told me we had not lost the Union. Nebs was a vice admiral in charge of a handpicked special operations group. Or at least I thought it was safe to make that assumption given my prior experience with him and his people. It was possible we’d lost him during our ever more frequent slip tunnel jumps, but I just didn’t feel like we’d escaped.
“Bring Henshaw and Path online as well,” I said.
A moment later, the ocular engineer and the sword saint appeared on a holo representing the bridge of the Jellybird, which was extremely comfortable-looking, I thought.
“I assume you’ve made a decision,” Henshaw said. He looked tired but not in a way that was hungover or unhappy.
If what Tom told me was correct, that both of them were spending a lot of time working on design, implementation, and small improvements to stealth mode for first the Jellybird and then the Lady Faith.
I was glad they were so committed to the project because we needed every advantage we could get.
Tom and Elise arrived, both of them in fresh jumpsuits and looking like they had taken the time to get squared away. I had everyone on a strict water rationing for showers, but by alternating those with sonic cleansing, we were able to look and feel presentable most of the time.
That might not always be the case this far beyond the Deadlands.
“Everyone was part of this decision,” I said. “When it comes to the Union, we can’t take chances. That means we have to know where they are.”
Elise shook her head. “But all we will do if we wait is confirm to them that they are still behind us. Why not just make the leap and keep them guessing?”
She wasn’t wrong. But like my other observations, I felt like instinct was guiding me. I needed to know if Nebs was behind me and how much of his carrier group he still had with him.
“There are only so many slip tunnels, even this far out in uncharted space. What happens if they somehow got ahead of us to another part of the network? What if they have technology we don’t know that allows them to get ahead of us and we emerge into a trap?” I asked.
Elise had a quick answer. “That’s why we do the evasive maneuvers and take the precautions you taught us. I don’t see how waiting now does us any good.”
It was hard to answer because she wasn’t wrong and my instincts shouldn’t be allowed to override logic. I took a second to formulate my response. “Now that we are at the entrance to the slip tunnel, we can disappear almost instantly. What I want to see is all three of Nebs’s carriers and related ships emerge from the tunnel. Then I will know where they are. It will influence my decision the next time we arrive at a nexus.”
No one said anything. I could see each of them considering my logic.
“And yet we had to participate in your unnecessary race,” Henshaw said. “I am not normally one to advocate rushing forward blindly, but I think we should leave the system now.”
I looked at Tom and then Path, the only two who had not voiced an opinion. Tom seemed embarrassed and shrugged, indicating he agreed with Elise and Henshaw. Path held my stare for a long time.
“There is no reason for us to stay,” Path said.
“What about you, X?” I asked, knowing that my limited artificial intelligence would reply on the open channel for this question.
“We can’t strike a target we cannot see. I advocate we wait. There is no Union ship on record fast enough to catch us with the lead we have established in the system. How that will translate after the next slip tunnel jump remains to be seen. I’m with you, Reaper Cain.”
“Well thanks, X,” I said, but then doubted myself. There had to be a reason I was so set on watching the sensors we had deployed around the slip tunnel exit. Maybe I thought they would come with ten ships instead of just three. Maybe I hoped they would never come. Maybe I was hoping we were done with running from the Union.
“I thought we agreed you were going to share some of these responsibilities with us,” Elise said, having become the spokesperson for the others.
“I said I’d think about it,” I said.
“You promised. Now you’re going back on your word,” she insisted.
“Would you like me to review the conversation?” X-37 offered.
“No,” Elise and I said at the same time.
I stood and used the small amount of available space on the bridge of the Jellybird to pace. I wasn’t normally this indecisive. Having to consider the input and feelings of others was a lot harder than it should be.
Facing my friends and allies here on the bridge and in the small holo view from the Lady Faith, I put my fists on my hips and gave them a hard look. “Let me shuck it down,” I said. “I’m struggling with this decision, but it isn’t a debate I can win with logic. If you trust me, then go with me on this. We wait until we see who comes through that slip tunnel, then we get out of here.”
One by one, they nodded.
“What do you need us to do?” Elise asked.
“Everybody monitors one of the concealed sensor relays we left behind. It’s going to be a long shift, but I think we all agree it demands our utmost attention,” I said, feeling like I was giving a debrief to actual soldiers.
I wasn’t, of course. I had a runaway girl, a mechanic, an ocular engineer with a gambling problem, and a sword saint who acted like a monk and dressed like a punk rock star.
Not exactly the crew I would pick to fight someone like Vice Admiral Nebs and his special operations group, but they were all I had.
* * *
The UFS Nightmare came first, blasting straight out of the tunnel and stopping abruptly to deploy its small ships. The micro fighters, which lacked the range of true void combat vessels, spread out to form a sphere around the carrier.
Just when I was starting to get a feel for their formation, the UFS Darklance and UFS Black Wing emerged almost simultaneously and took positions on the right and left flank of the Nightmare. Their own ultra-small fighters deployed, turning their ship of the line type deployment into a three-dimensional formation with defensive spheres of the little fighters.
“Jelly, we’ll follow behind the Lady Faith. It’s time to go,” I said, already having seen most of what I needed. Before the words left my mouth, the small ships were returning to their carriers.
With no imminent battle, they would land on the respective ships, and then the carriers would go into stealth mode. If the small ships had stealth capability, we wouldn’t have seen much of this deployment.
That was information I would need in the future.
“X, I need you to log everything about their movements and deployment abilities,” I said.
“Of course, Reaper Cain,” X-37 promised. “I will add it to our tactical database for future encounters with Vice Admiral Nebs and his special operations group.”
Henshaw looked at me as things quieted down, his face flickering slightly in the holographic image. “Was the risk worth it?”
“I think it was,” I said, knowing that Henshaw would not answer me because the Lady Faith was entering the next slip tunnel now.
In a surprisingly short amount of time, all of the micro fighters docked on their Union carriers, which then disappeared.
“I do not believe they detected our sensor relays,” Jelly said.
I nodded. “That’s really good news. Let’s activate our stealth cloak and see what happens.”
“Is now really the best time for a test?” Jelly asked.
I looked at Tom. “What do you think?”
He shrugged, barely moving his shoulders and looking away in a manner that was more humble than doubtful. “I think it will work. We put a lot of effort into upgrading the algorithms. It should take them multiple exposures to our technology for them to break it.”
“Then let’s see what we can do,” I said. My only regret was that I hadn’t put Elise and Tom on the Lady Faith before sending her through the slip tunnel. Promising myself that I would manufacture some reason for both of them to be on the other ship in this type of situation in the future, I took manual control of the Jellybird and piloted away from the slip tunnel.
“I’m as curious as you are, Reaper,” Elise said. “But I don’t like this.”
“We’re not going far,” I promised.
“There is good news and bad news,” Jelly said. “It does not seem they detected the Lady Faith before she jumped. The bad news is that they are bombarding this area with sensor inquiries, suggesting they may be looking for us despite the stealth cloak.”
“Let’s make our way to the tunnel entrance. I want to drop our cloak and slip through with as little exposure to Union scans as possible. Maybe we can have the best of both worlds,” I said, feeling slightly like my decision had been vindicated. All three of the Union stealth carriers were here, which meant I didn’t have to worry about flying into an ambush when we exited the next tunnel.