Hope you enjoy! See you Sunday :)

-Plum

20 – A Knife in the Dark

The comms crackled in the cargo bay where Hector and his team were relaxing. One of the bridge crew announced, “We have to give the anti-grav another break; the cooling system isn’t doing its job very well. Grab onto something or put on your mag-boots.”

“Ah, dammit!” Kristy groaned. “Again?”

Hector was sitting on a gray plastic crate, and he wrapped his fingers around the strap holding it to the decking. “Quit whining,” he said, looking over toward where Kristy, Orin, and Demon were playing some kind of augmented reality dice game. “It’s a miracle this old barge even has a generator.”

“Not really,” Mathews commented as she wrapped a ratchet strap around her ankle and secured it to a decking tie-down. “It makes life a lot easier on a cargo ship if you’ve got gravity. Think about what a pain it was for us to secure our things during the first outage.”

“Yeah,” Hector conceded, “but I’m just saying it’s lucky they didn’t strip the generator for one of their rusty warships.”

Mathews grunted, shrugging as she scooted closer to the graffiti-covered plasteel wall. “I guess, but think about how important cargo is to a pirate; they gotta be able to offload their victims and make themselves scarce in a hurry—much easier with a gravity generator—”

“Oh, Angels!” Kristy cried. “Will you two quit talking about gravity generators? It’s bad enough that—” Her words were cut short as a klaxon sounded two times. The steady, comfortable pull toward the decking suddenly cut off, and they were all left to deal with the unpleasantness of zero gravity.

Hector was glad Lemon was still up on the bridge with Kit; they’d have seats with belts and hopefully be a lot more comfortable. The thought brought Sass to mind, and he scanned the cargo hold, but didn’t see her. “Where’s Sass?” he asked aloud, watching as some food wrappers slowly drifted off the top of a nearby crate; whoever was piloting Elephant was doing a damn good job of keeping the ship’s maneuvers small while the gravity was off.

Orin, eyes focused on something his AUI was displaying, said, “With Fred.”

“Where?” Hector repeated.

“I don’t know,” the big man replied.

Demon glanced at Hector and said, “Saw them in bay one with Burton and that security guy; a bunch of them were drinking. Paige was there, too.”

“Ah.” Hector had known about the impromptu party, and he’d been fine with it—people letting off steam was natural and healthy after a battle, after all. He’d even stopped and joined in for a couple of toasts, but there’d been more than a dozen people hanging around and it hadn’t registered to him that Freddy and Sass were mixed in. The more he thought about it, the more he frowned. Were they there?

//I just reviewed my data cache; they were there, but not involved in the toasts. Freddy and Sass were sitting together off to the side, talking quietly. I could try to analyze their lip movements for—//

Nah, don’t be creepy, Evie.

//I wasn’t trying to be!//

Hector smiled, pleased that he’d gotten the AI’s goat. He glanced at the timer on his AUI—just about ninety minutes to the ship’s coordinates. That party should have been over a while ago. Get ahold of Burton, will you? He watched as Evie selected Burton’s name on the crew comm channel, and then it flashed yellow as she tried to get him to answer. A moment later, Burton’s voice came through Hector’s ear implants:

“What’s the word?” Of course, the old blowhard sounded fresh and sharp, not a hint of a slur in his voice.

“Do you have eyes on Sass or Freddy?”

“Yep. They’ve been snuggled up watching vids together for the last few hours. You need one of ’em?”

“Nah. Just didn’t know what they were doing. The kid talk to you about duels?”

“Sure did. I told him we’d see how things shake out after we get you through the first Game. If Sparling lets me hang around, I’ll work with him.”

“Good. That’s all I wanted.”

“Well,” Burton said, pausing to exhale noisily, “here’s hoping your coordinates pan out.”

“We’ll know soon.” Hector cut the connection. He wasn’t worried about offending Burton, and he was tired of the topic. It wasn’t that he blamed people for being stressed about the situation; Gladia and her crew were in an objectively worse position since leaving Mars at his demand. If it turned out to be some kind of goose chase, nobody was going to be happy. Even so, Hector didn’t want to be reminded of the fact every time he managed to push it out of his mind.

During that bit of introspection, he’d closed his eyes, perhaps because the weightlessness in his guts was making him a little nauseous. When he opened them, he was surprised to see Paige drifting toward him from the direction of the bulkhead door. She wore a compact air pack on her belt and was using little puffs of air to fly through the big, mostly open space of the cargo hold. When she saw him looking, she smiled, an expression that was open and honest, and not at all forced.

Hector gripped tightly on the tether and waved with his other hand.

“Hey!” she called as she drifted toward him. “You guys are missing out! When’s the next time you’re going to do zero-G?”

“Eh.” Kristy waved a hand dismissively. “I refuse to get my hopes up. We’ll probably be riding this barge back to Mars.”

Hector didn’t look at her; he was still watching Paige, appreciating the fact that she was trying to be positive. Still, he wasn’t above some teasing. “That’s great to hear, Kristy; we need a crew to stay with Elephant, so—”

“You better be kidding!” she cried, so forcefully that her foot slipped out from under the crate she’d been using to anchor herself. She slid away, mostly parallel to the decking, but slowly rising. Of course, Orin and Demon laughed, and Kristy panicked, thrashing as she let loose a string of curses.

“Calm down,” Paige said, also laughing. “I’ll come and get you.”

“You should know how to handle a little weightlessness, Gray,” Mathews said. Hector admired how her scolding always seemed to land a little harder when she used someone’s surname. He also wondered if that was why she preferred to go by her surname; it couldn’t be used against her.

As Paige helped Kristy, Hector closed his eyes again and zoned out. To his delight, he managed to drift into that pleasant state that was halfway between waking and sleep, and time slipped away at an accelerated pace for a little while. When the klaxons sounded and a different voice announced gravity was returning, he was surprised to see his countdown timer was at twenty-nine minutes.

After the comforting pull of gravity returned, he stood and walked over to his little pile of luggage. A mesh net held it all to the decking, and he had to unfasten it to pull out the shielded suitcase. He took a minute to transfer the drive-core cipher and the rift pearl to a tactical backpack, then slung it over his shoulder. He turned to the team, surprised to see a lot of eyes already on him. “I’m heading up to the bridge. Get kitted up and ready; I’m not sure what to expect.”

Mathews, very much back to her old self, or at least trying to give that impression, nodded, clambering to her feet. “We’ll be ready for anything.”

On his way to the bridge, he detoured into cargo bay one and found Sass and Freddy. They were both lying flat on their backs, staring up with tiny lights flickering in their irises. “Hey,” he said, kicking Sass’s boot.

She blinked rapidly and looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Get with the rest of the team. We’re almost there.”

“I’ll go with,” Freddy said.

Hector wanted to tell him to go check in with his mother, but he didn’t. His decision to let Sass learn about Royals for herself itched uncomfortably at his conscience, but he tried to ignore the feeling. The best he could do was be there to help her through the disappointment.

“Right, um, okay.” Sass hopped to her feet, and Hector started back toward the bulkhead door. Her voice chased him: “Hector?” When he turned, she asked, “Is everything okay?”

He nodded, smiling. “Everything’s good. Just stressed—you know, about the coordinates.”

Freddy grinned at him. “Worried we gave away Maidensong for nothing?”

“Ah, shut up, kid.” Hector pulled the bulkhead open, pursued by the sounds of Sass’s giggles.

//It’s good they’re laughing and having fun, Hector.//

I know.

//Freddy has a lot looming over him, arguably as much as you.//

Yeah.

Evie let it go, and Hector made his way up a combination of stairs and lifts to the beat-up old bridge. When he stepped through the door, Gladia looked his way and smiled. “I had a feeling you were on your way. Almost there.”

Hector nodded, looking around the bridge—three of Gladia’s crew members along with Iris, Lemon, and Kit occupied the seats. Lemon smiled at him when their eyes locked, and Hector’s encroaching grumpiness retreated a little. Iris was doing something on a crystal-glass tablet with Kit, and to Hector’s surprise, she didn’t offer any sort of witty quip about how she hoped, for his sake, the ship was actually there.

“I had Lewis hook up a projector for us, Hector,” Gladia said, gesturing to the cracked viewscreen at the front of the bridge, and he realized it wasn’t just black; it was a projection of the forward sensor array feed. At the moment, it was displaying the raw video feed—mostly empty space with occasional shadowy asteroids crossing the field of view. As he watched, it flickered, and he saw a map of their trajectory through 3D-modeled space objects.

The objects—asteroids, he assumed—looked large until he saw the model of their destination. The target was an irregularly shaped mass that looked colossal next to the nearby asteroids and Elephant. “How big is it?”

“The asteroid?” Gladia asked. “Twenty-two thousand meters at its widest point. See the fissure, though? Mae thinks that’s where your ship would be hidden.”

“You’re talking to her?”

Gladia nodded. “Of course! Do you think I wouldn’t give her a wireless jack?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought maybe she was…dormant or something.” He stepped closer to the display, watching as Gladia or one of her techs zoomed the view in on a canyon-sized fissure near the wider end of the asteroid. “It’s a big hole.”

“That’s what he—” Iris started to say, but then caught herself, glancing at Kit.

Despite himself, Hector snorted softly, shaking his head. Meanwhile, Kit said, “Aunt Iris, pay attention!”

“I am, buddy. Look at your guy there—you need to build another wall or the mushrooms will get in that way.”

Hector tuned them out and watched as details slowly populated the surface of the 3D-modeled asteroid. “Are you picking up those details in real time?”

“Yes, sir,” one of the crew members said. “We’ll be able to get a better view into that crevice in just a few minutes.”

Hector nodded. We’re sure this is the right rock?

//This is Object JX-7331. It matches the survey image by over ninety percent. Considering the survey data is closing in on five hundred years old, we can’t expect a better match than that. Collisions over time and imperfect data to begin with mean—//

I get it.

The bridge grew quiet except for the soft murmurings of Kit and Iris talking about his game. Everyone was dialed in, watching as the image grew more and more detailed, the depths of the shadowy crevice slowly being painted as the Elephant’s less-than-impressive scanner array zeroed in on their destination.

“Can Elephant fit in there?” Lemon asked.

“Oh yes, ma’am,” the same crew member said. “The fissure runs nearly twelve kilometers along the asteroid, averages three hundred meters across, and reaches almost two kilometers deep in places.”

Ever so slowly, as Elephant corrected its approach and began to steer toward the crevice, the sensors picked up more and more detail and continued to fill in the blackness of the crevice with detail. Hector found himself holding his breath, and after a minute or so, exhaled rather loudly through his nose.

Gladia moved to stand a little closer to him, and her voice was pitched low when she spoke—for his ears only—though on the quiet bridge, Hector was sure everyone overheard. “I won’t blame you. I won’t be angry either. If there’s nothing here, I just want to hear why you thought there would be.”

Hector unslung his backpack and unzipped it. No sense hiding things now. Everyone’s eyes were on him as he reached in and took out the small, metallic orb. He held the cipher in his palm and said, “Some people, including a low-tier Royal, were killing each other over this thing back on Mars. I got my hands on it and did a little research. It’s a drive-core cipher for an Expansion-Era ship.” He nodded toward the display. “And those are the ship’s last authenticated coordinates.”

“Expansion-Era?” Gladia and Iris both repeated, looking from Hector to each other. Gladia clamped her mouth shut, and the muscles along her jaw twitched. Iris said, “You brought us here looking for a ship that’s probably fifteen hundred years old?”

“Um, ma’am?” Lewis said, driving his fingers through his neatly cropped gray hair. “You should—”

“Holy shit!” another crew member said, then hastily added, “Sorry, ma’am!”

Hector looked at the display and silently shared in the man’s reaction. Deep in the crevice, hugging the stony asteroid wall, a geometric, human-made shape—dark as the shadows in which it hid—was coming into view. It was huge, much larger than Hector had anticipated. They were approaching its prow, and as further details of the ship filled in, drawn by Elephant’s scanner software, more and more gasps and exclamations resounded on the bridge.

At first, Hector wondered if it had some propulsion active—how was it maintaining its position so close to the fissure wall? Then the scanner revealed dozens of docking spars connecting the ship’s dorsal spine to anchor points sunk into the rock.

“That,” Lewis said, “is a ship killer, ma’am. Do you see the recessed muzzle in the prow? That’s a hell of a railgun.”

“Is it shaped like a…” Iris glanced at Hector. “Like a knife?”

He tilted his head. She wasn’t wrong; the ship was long and slender, and the dorsal spine was considerably wider than the narrow ventral keel. It was sharp and aggressive, and it would present a tiny target area when facing its foes head-on. “Looks that way. How big?”

“Bigger than this tub,” Lewis replied. “A moment, sir. I’ll have the software draw in the dimensions.” Hector watched, his eyes widening as lines and numbers appeared around the silent, matte-black ship. It was four hundred meters long, sixty meters tall—from keel to spine. The blade-like appearance came from the ship being thirty meters wide at the spine, tapering to ten along the keel.

“Why does it taper like that?” Lemon asked.

“It’s a fighting ship, ma’am,” Lewis replied. “Angled armor, smaller head-on target, force distribution—there are a lot of reasons for a shape like that. If she’s from the Expansion Era, she was made for taking down big, dangerous ships.” He looked at Hector and Gladia and said, “We don’t have the crew for a ship that size, but we can skeleton crew her; the AI should be capable, assuming it wasn’t stripped. She’s dead cold, though. If the reactor’s got any fire in it, then it’s shielded a hell of a lot better than even Maidensong.”

“There’s not a mark on it,” Gladia said, eyes glued to the display. “Not just damage, but I mean, there aren’t any identifiers. No numbers—nothing.” She looked at Hector. “Where did you say you got that cipher?”

He grinned. “I’ll tell you the story sometime. For now—” He turned to Lewis. “—can you dock with it?”

“This sow’s got a universal, articulated extension with a molding polymer gasket seal, but only on the personnel EVA airlock. I doubt the cargo airlock will match up with a ship like that.”

“So, if we take that ship, what about our things?” Gladia asked.

Lewis smiled. “We’ll have to float them over, ma’am.”

“Get us lined up,” Hector said. “I’ll get my team to the airlock.”

“Yes, sir,” Lewis replied, but he didn’t do anything before looking to Gladia and asking, “Ma’am?”

She nodded. “Do it.”

“Well,” Iris said, “I guess I owe you an apology, Hector. I’ve never seen a ship like that. It reminds me of the Emperor’s vessels a little, but they’re always painted white and gold. It’s big, but it’s not as big as some of the Legion’s capital ships, and—”

“It’s old as hell, that’s for sure,” Hector said, cutting her off before she could start trying to name off all the fancy ships she’d seen. “I’ve seen a handful of fold-ships in my time. I can see the resemblance, but like you said, Royals have flashier taste and more often than not, hulls have been expanded and modified on those ships over the centuries.”

“Flashy?” Gladia asked, smiling as she narrowed her golden eyes at him.

Hector shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

“Well? Shall we go and see if that cipher works?” Gladia asked. She looked at Lemon and Iris. “You may as well come along. With any luck, we won’t have to step foot on this bridge again.”

“Um, ma’am?” Lewis asked.

“Get us docked, Lewis. I’ll send you instructions after we confirm the other ship is operational.”

Hector sighed, leading the way off the bridge. As they approached the first cage-like lift that would take them down a few levels, he said, “You have to let me and my team go in first. Just in case it’s not safe.” He nodded to Kit for emphasis.

“We’ll wait near the airlock,” Iris said.

Gladia nodded. “That’s right.” To his surprise, as they all stepped onto the lift, Gladia took his arm and squeezed. “I imagine you’re feeling greatly relieved.”

Hector looked at her, then from Iris to Lemon, where he let his eyes linger. She smiled after a few seconds and looked down, so Hector turned back to Gladia. “Yeah, I’m relieved. I felt bad about Maidensong, so I’m glad we didn’t come here and find something disappointing.”

He cleared his throat and added, “Just so you know, Gladia; I might feel like I owe you something for what happened to your ship, but I’m paying you back for that in the Games. This ship—this ship isn’t going to be your new flagship. I’ve got plans for it already.”

Gladia opened her mouth to reply, but after a glance at Iris, she must have thought better of it. She simply nodded and let go of his arm. Then they were moving off the lift toward a stairwell that would bring them down to the EVA airlock level, and the matter dropped.

Get the team up here.

//They’re on the way.// After a couple of seconds, Evie spoke again: //I can see the images in your mind—Imperial ships exploding.//

Well? If the Emperor really is behind the Contis’ slaughter, then you’re damn right I’ll put this ship to good use.