Guardians of Paradise (48 page)
Read Guardians of Paradise Online
Authors: Jaine Fenn
In the awkward silence that followed, Jarek’s com chirped. He checked it. ‘We’re being hailed.’
‘By traffic control?’ asked Nual.
‘No, I think they’ve realised I’m not going to answer. I need to get up to the bridge and find out who it is.’ He stood up.
Taro and Nual followed him, waiting at the back of the bridge while he checked the sensor-logs. The unknown ship wasn’t an in-system interceptor; it was a corvette, and it was heading their way. He called up a retroactive display of likely vectors, sending the bright little dots representing the two ships zipping backwards through the holo-cube. ‘The ship was on its way in from the beacon - it must’ve arrived in-system earlier today. It looks like they spotted us heading away from Rangui-iti after the explosion, then braked and turned to follow. They’re running silent, and they only hailed us when they were already on our tail. That’s not friendly behaviour.’
‘It’s the Court,’ said Nual in a small voice.
‘What? I thought you said their ship got taken over by these infected Sidhe.’
‘No, I—I wasn’t thinking straight, was I? The avatar said it came to Kama Nui because the entity knew there would be a lot of Sidhe here, waiting for the consorts. I assumed it - they - must have intercepted the Court’s ship, but it never actually said that. Jarek, I’m really sorry. I should have thought.’
‘And I should have been keeping an eye on the beacon, not just the planet. We can do sorries later. Are you sure it’s the Court?’
She nodded.
‘Shit. And I thought today couldn’t get any worse.’ He ramped the drive back up to max. It was unlikely to make much difference, but it made him feel better. ‘Shame we can’t persuade them we’re not worth bothering with . . .’ He’d been about to discard that option, but it wasn’t an entirely stupid idea. Sidhe powers wouldn’t work over a com, and they were close enough, and still going slow enough, for tight-beam messaging, so he wouldn’t have to blow his new ship ID. Then again, at the rate the corvette was gaining, perhaps he should just prep for transit.
He realised the others were looking at him expectantly. ‘I was wondering if it was worth trying to talk to them to throw them off the trail, but I think my time would be better spent getting us out of here.’
‘Is that “out” as in an unscheduled transit?’ asked Taro.
‘This far from the beacon it’ll have to be.’
‘Ain’t that a bit drastic?’
‘That ship is way faster than us. They can’t board us at this speed, but they might be armed, and even if they’re not, once they’ve closed, they can tail us wherever we go - including into shiftspace. If it
is
the Court - and Nual’s word is good enough for me - then we need to be gone before that happens.’ He started the priming sequence on the transit-kernel and began to initiate fast shutdowns on the ship’s other major systems.
is
the Court - and Nual’s word is good enough for me - then we need to be gone before that happens.’ He started the priming sequence on the transit-kernel and began to initiate fast shutdowns on the ship’s other major systems.
‘You’re obviously a bit busy,’ said Taro, ‘but how about if I spoke to them?’
He turned to look at Taro. From the boy’s expression, he was serious. Taro continued, ‘The way I see it, if we don’t answer them, they’ll know something’s up and keep coming after us. If I say we’ve got some sort of problem, so we can’t stop and chat, maybe I can get them to back off.’ He grimaced. ‘But I guess that’d only work if there’s some way of comming them without them recognising us. Forget it, it’s a dumb idea—’
‘No, it isn’t. Go to my cabin - there’s a com in the cabinet beside the bed. Bring it up here.’
‘Right. Back in a sec.’ Taro kicked off down the steps.
The kernel-interface programme asked him to select an exit system. The most logical choice would be Mercanth, because it was a hubpoint . . . but that was what their pursuers would expect, and if they had agents there they might alert them. After a moment’s consideration he chose the least-used of the five transit-paths out of the Kama Nui system, an insular low-population democracy called Oril. Taking an indirect route to Xantier would delay getting to Bez, but right now all that mattered was losing the Court.
‘Can you put me into stasis before we make the transit?’ asked Nual.
‘Sorry, no, there’s no time. I’ll try and sort out some drugs for us before we shift.’
‘All right. Can I do anything to help?’
‘No just . . . stay out the way.’
Taro came back with the greymarket com from Kama Nui while Jarek was running a projection in the holo-cube, one eye on the readouts telling him how the initial shutdown was progressing. Even if all essential systems went offline without a hitch they’d be cutting it fine; the corvette would be only three minutes away from slipstreaming range when they shifted.
‘Here, please.’ Jarek held out a hand and Taro slapped the com into it. Jarek patched the com into the
Heart of Glass
’s tight-beam system with one hand at the same time as he shut down long-range sensors with the other. ‘Right, I’ve activated the scrambler so they won’t be able to see your face.’
Heart of Glass
’s tight-beam system with one hand at the same time as he shut down long-range sensors with the other. ‘Right, I’ve activated the scrambler so they won’t be able to see your face.’
‘Good. Got it.’ Taro took the com.
‘I’m putting them through . . . now.’
There was a small chirp, nearly lost amongst the other noises on the bridge. Taro spoke into the com. ‘Make it quick, friend.’
Jarek put the reply through the bridge speakers. The woman who answered sounded understandably taken aback at Taro’s terse greeting. ‘Why didn’t you respond to our earlier hails? And why is your signal so distorted?’
Taro replied, ‘Because we’ve got problems! Now, we’re in a bit of a hurry here, so if you don’t mind—’
‘What is the nature of your problem?’
‘No offence, but what’s it to you?’ Jarek smiled at Taro’s reply; the boy was enjoying being able to talk back to a Sidhe.
Jarek turned his attention back to his console; at times like this he wished he’d gone for the interface implants after all. The next choice was when to cut the in-system drive. The longer he left it, the more distance he’d put between them and the corvette . . . and the greater the chance shutdown wouldn’t complete cleanly before transit. Incomplete engine shutdown when they went into shiftspace was dangerous, and no working drive when they came out could be suicidal if they didn’t shake off their pursuers. After a moment’s thought, he killed the engines, then pounced on the expected array of error-indicators and started to override them.
I know, I know, taking the drive offline without completing preliminary shutdown is dangerous, invalidates the warranty and insurance, yadda yadda yadda.
I know, I know, taking the drive offline without completing preliminary shutdown is dangerous, invalidates the warranty and insurance, yadda yadda yadda.
The next time he focused on Taro the boy was saying, ‘—haven’t been to this Rangoo-eet place, sorry.’
‘Really?’ The Sidhe’s voice was dubious. ‘And what is the nature of this engine fault you referred to?’
‘Like I said, the captain’s working on it now. But we’ve already lost AG and the drive-to-reactor interface ain’t looking so good.’
Jarek raised an eyebrow. The faults Taro described were unusual, but not impossible. And he was certainly conveying a convincing tone of panic.
The Sidhe said silkily, ‘Can we be of any assistance?’
‘Wish you could, but if I were you, I’d back off. If the drive does blow, it’s likely to take the reactor with it. If that happens, you don’t wanna be too close.’
The com went silent. Jarek’s hands kept working on the shutdown of the remaining peripheral systems but he spared the energy to hope that Taro had convinced the other ship to leave them alone. He’d still make the transit as soon as he could but if the other ship slowed, even by a few per cent, then he wouldn’t have to cut so many corners, and that would give him a far greater chance of coming out of shiftspace with his ship intact.
Finally the Sidhe said, ‘Your caution is wise. However, you appear to be decelerating. Why is that?’
Jarek looked up to see Taro looking confused. ‘Are we? I mean, so we are. Captain?’
Jarek shook his head. Taro shrugged, then flashed him a grin.
‘Oh no!’ screamed Taro into the com, ‘It’s gonna—’
He cut the connection with a flourish, then leant back against the bulkhead. ‘Oh, bollocks,’ he said.
‘Actually,’ said Jarek, ‘that was pretty impressive bullshitting. You know more shiftship jargon than I’d expect for a boy born in a floating city.’
‘Yeah, well, you got a good games library on board. I had a go at playing trader when you left me by myself.’
‘Right.’ He’d shut down the holo-plate but the numbers on his flatscreen showed the corvette still accelerating. Things were looking worse by the second. ‘Thanks for trying, but our options are narrowing.’
Taro took the hint and shut up.
Most of the nominalisation subroutines had completed. A little manual intervention now might speed up shutdown on certain core processes—
‘Are we going to make the transit in time?’ asked Nual tersely.
‘Don’t know. Sorry, I need to concentrate now.’
‘I must know: will you be able to initiate transit before they are too close?’
‘Nual, for fuck’s sake, I just said I don’t know!’
The transit-kernel came fully online. Good. Now he just needed to get his ship ready to face the shift. Maybe he could shave off some more time by bypassing a few failsafes . . . but he needed to make sure they were the right ones. The moment the core systems were nominal, he’d force a shift.
His instinct, when the alarm chimed, was to override it. But when he saw what the problem was he snatched his hand back from the console. Reactor lockdown had failed. The containment system was already performing an automatic reset, thank Christos; another five seconds and Taro’s lie to the Sidhe would’ve come true, and all that would be left of the
Heart of Glass
would be a rapidly expanding cloud of hot atoms.
Heart of Glass
would be a rapidly expanding cloud of hot atoms.
But until the reactor was safely locked down, most of the other subroutines would just hang. They were going to run out of time.
He didn’t realise he’d said anything until Nual called out cautiously, ‘What is it?’
Perhaps he hadn’t spoken out loud, perhaps she’d just picked up on the mental gurgle of the last shreds of hope disappearing down the pan.
‘We’re screwed,’ he said. ‘There was a problem with the reactor. If we’re lucky then it should only take a few minutes to fix, but there’s a shitload of other systems waiting on it. By the time those are offline the Court’ll be on our arses.’
‘Shit,’ said Taro.
Nual said something Jarek didn’t catch to Taro. Then she said distinctly, ‘There may be another way.’
He spared a glance in their direction to see her disappearing down the hatch, Taro following close behind. Maybe they’d decided to get themselves dosed up for transit anyway . . . It wasn’t his problem any more.
For the moment, there was nothing he could do but wait for the reactor, hoping and praying for a fast, clean lockdown. He could feel sweat running down between his eyebrows and pooling in his armpits. He found himself mentally cajoling the numbers on the flatscreen in front of him, the only remaining active display on the bridge.
Come on, come on.
Come on, come on.
The display changed:
Reactor stable and nominal.
‘Yes!’ Lockdown had completed in record time. The other readouts sprang back into life as the remaining systems’ shutdowns restarted.
Reactor stable and nominal.
‘Yes!’ Lockdown had completed in record time. The other readouts sprang back into life as the remaining systems’ shutdowns restarted.
The comp warned him that it would go into safe mode in one minute. He requested an estimate for shutdown completion on the last few systems. One minute fifteen. At which point he’d punch it and they’d be gone. He glanced at the other countdown, the one in red at the bottom on the screen.
Unless something happened to stop the Sidhe corvette, in fifty-three seconds it would be close enough to slipstream them when they went into the shift.
‘Fuck it!’ The oath escaped before he could stop it. It wasn’t fair. He’d given it everything he had, and they weren’t going to make—
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
‘I’m not sure what you mean.’ Taro had seen Nual like this before. She was considering something risky. He didn’t want that, not when he’d only just got her back.
Other books
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Cafe by Rebecca Raisin
Beautiful Entourage by E. L. Todd
My Best Friend's Bride by Baird, Ginny
Stay Forever by Corona, Eva
After Rain by William Trevor
Once in a Lifetime by Gwynne Forster
Shared by the Barbarians by Emily Tilton
Hugger Mugger by Robert B. Parker
Frostbite (Modern Knights Book 1) by Joshua Bader
