Hegemony (47 page)

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Two swift-ships; one, a warship of Central Throne Fleet, a sleek and gleaming black arrowhead; the other, a void-runner pirate ship, an improvised courier hull rigged with an oversized drive and festooned with irregular weapons and sensors pods --perhaps ungainly, but predatory looking none-the-less. Both were burning hard for deep space, leaving the inner planets of the Yuro system behind.

By now they were pursued, but the swift-ships were too fast for the guard-ships stationed in Yuro IV orbit to catch, and their vector was carefully chosen to avoid any patrolling guard-ships in high orbits. Two System Defense Fleet swift-ships were accelerating behind them, but they were far behind, and not catching up.

Freya had repeatedly signaled that her ship
and
the void-runner ship, the
Whisperknife,
were both operating on a maximum priority Central Throne Fleet mission, not to be interfered with. That had seemingly worked for a while. But now the local System Defense Fleet was no longer acknowledging her signals. And for that matter, she was no longer acknowledging theirs.

In the normal course of things, it would have been no great task to outrun the SDF ships.
Ice Knife
was a Central Throne Fleet ship, designed for daemons, intended to operate without living human bodies aboard. She could maintain a maximum sustained acceleration of seven gees for as long as her reaction mass held out. Human crewed ships could not. Acceleration-gel-filled command pods allowed human crews to endure prolonged high gees, but every few hours human crewed ships would scale back to one gee or so, to let the crews recover, rest and simply move outside of the enclosing embrace of the acceleration gel.

The
Whisperknife
presented a problem, though. Not only was she human crewed, she was less powerful than a military swift-ship, unable to match the
Ice Knife's
acceleration even briefly. For now, the two ships were running together, accelerating at 5.5 gees, but the SDF swift-ships were beginning to overtake their vector; at this rate, they would catch up.

"Captain Killick," Freya said, "I think you see the same data as I do."

"I see it," came Captain Killick's reply. Both of them were vocalizing, but Freya was sure that the void-runner captain was 'talking' via a data link; given the high gees, he would be immobile in his command pod, controlling his ship via direct interface.

"Then you see what I see; the SDF ships will begin closing the range in just under three hours. They'll intercept about eleven hours after that."

"They will if we keep to this acceleration schedule," Nas said.

"I was under the impression your ship was at maximum acceleration."

"Not quite," came Killick's response, with a tone of hard amusement. "Maybe your Hegemony SDF crews need a low-gee break every five hours, but my crew can burn hard for longer than that. And there's other ways to slow them down."

"If you can up your acceleration, and maintain it, that would excellent," Freya said. "But I cannot countenance your firing against Hegemonic ships... that's what you mean by other ways, yes? Not even against those SDF ships."

"What makes you think I care what you can countenance, Captain Tralk?"

"Well, let me put it this way: if you fire on those ships, they will shoot down your attack as they overtake it... that's what you're thinking of, right? Drop a warhead, or a few, to decelerate down your own vector; force them to maneuver to avoid the shot, and buy yourself more time that way."

"Sure," said Killick.

"Well, Captain Killick, those ships have enough laser firepower to just shoot down your warheads before they get into detonation range... no need to alter their vector at all. More to the point, though, my ship will shoot down your warheads if you launch them."

"Well fuck you, then. What do you suggest I do... or do you even care?"

"Up your acceleration. If you can do that, that will hold them off. All we need is to get out of the inner system to initiate an FTL transit. There are at least a half dozen systems you can aim for from here. Also, if they do start overtaking, I'll drop a few warheads."

"What?"

"Those ships are trying to interfere with a Central Throne Fleet operation. If I have to shoot, I will. If you shoot, it's outright piracy against Hegemonic forces."

"And if they shoot?" came Killick's caustic reply.

"If they shoot at me, I'll shoot back. If they shoot at you, bring your ship in close under my lasers, and I'll tie you in to
Ice Knife
's point defense plan. But they're nowhere near in range, and they're chasing us. How many warheads can your ship salvo?"

"You'd like to know," Killick said. Then, after a pause, "call it a dozen."

"Damn," Freya said, unthinking, "that's a lot of firepower for a..."

"For a pirate?" came Killick's response. "Damned right it is.
Whisperknife
rates as a swift-ship by most military specifications... maybe not up to going toe to toe with your
Ice Knife
... unless we get clever... but we are
not
an
improvised
warship." Now there was obvious pride in Killick's voice. "I like the name of your ship, by the way," he added.

"Right," said Freya. "Thanks. A dozen warheads might even make them evade, but I can salvo two dozen without needing to cycle my launch tubes. So can the ships chasing us. Of course they're accelerating up our vector, accelerating
towards
any shot we launch, so that gives us a big edge on range. But that's beside the point. I'll engage if I have to, but you are not to shoot at those ships."

"All right," Killick said after a pause, amusement in his voice. "You just volunteered to use
your
ordinance to defend
my
ship, which lets me save my expensive warheads. Now that I think about it, that's
fine
by me."

Nas Killick let himself go from the command data link for a moment. He could feel his body encased in acceleration gel within his command pod. His eyes were closed and even if he had wanted to, he could not have opened them. A life support mask pressed against his face with a liquid feeling. The smart material of the mask sealed against his face, forcing oxygen into his lungs, drawing out CO2. He could feel the acceleration of his
Whisperknife
, five gees plus, like the pressure of deep water. The command pod was helping his lungs draw air; without it, just breathing would be an strenuous effort.

Nas plunged back into the data link. "Everyone, heads up," he said, subvocalizing and sending the data into the links of his crew, trapped like him in the acceleration gel of their command pods.

"We're going to open the drive up all the way. Senny, what can you give me, flat out?"

"Flat out," came Senny's 'voice,' actually a data stream delivered directly into Nas' interface implant, "flat out I can give you maybe six point two, maybe six point three."

"Set it up, Senny," Nas ordered. "Maximum sustained emergency power burn. Baby-sit the reactor, get the self-repair swarms ready, maximize the pressure in the radiator coolant loops, everything. We're going to burn at six point three gees for as long as it takes, people. No breaks. We live in our 'pods for a hundred fucking hours if that's what it takes...

"And let's see those Hegemonic assholes match us," Nas finished.

Whisperknife
was accelerating at a sustained 6.28 gees, Freya noted, though her radiator fins were glowing red with waste heat and her plasma drive had to be running at redline to manage it. Still, very impressive for a non-military ship.
Ice Knife
was matching that acceleration, keeping the two ships together. The two SDF swift-ships (Freya had their identifications now: the
Greyhound
and the
Silverdart
) were keeping to an acceleration schedule of seven gees for four hours, and one gee for one hour; an average of 5.8 gees. They were falling behind, but seemed unable or unwilling to subject their crews to the severe discomfort of prolonged high acceleration.

That was impressive too, Freya thought. Captain Killick and his crew
were
willing to subject themselves to sustained high gees. It had to be having a detrimental effect on them by now, but none of their communications suggested reducing acceleration to give the crew a chance to rest. It was a surprisingly formidable crew and ship, Freya thought. Uncomfortably so, given that they were pirates.

In another seven hours, Freya thought, the lead they had over the two SDF swift-ships would be large enough to let them cut acceleration and drift. There would be time to set up and execute an FTL transit before the pursuing ships could intercept. And that would be that.

The pirate would escape, of course, but Freya was willing to see that happen, if only as payment for his crew's very timely help on the surface of Yuro IV. Granted that Captain Killick had been after his own revenge and had had no intentions of helping the Hegemonic Fleet; he had still saved Freya, Muir and Zandy.

Once the pirate was gone to wherever he thought would be the best escape route,
Ice Knife
would be gone from this system too, back to Sigma Charybdis Waypoint Two. It would be hard work finding an intact sensors record of the Coalition raider, but Freya knew that in this case, failure was simply not to be allowed. Once that data was secure,
Ice Knife
would be able to report to the proper Central Throne Fleet authorities... and then the death of the Hegemonic assault ship
Conquering Sun
would not be in vain.

But there was one other matter to take care of first. One of her officers, the only survivor from the
Conquering Sun,
was aboard Captain Killick's
Whisperknife
. Freya needed her back.

"Captain Killick," Freya sent, "we'll be able to cut acceleration and drift in another one point three hours. Once we do, I expect you'll be setting up an FTL transit. We will as well. But before that point, I'd like you to send a shuttle over with my officer aboard. I guarantee that there will be no attempt to detain your shuttle or any of your crew."

There was a pause, and Killick replied, "We can do that." Another pause.

"We can do that," he repeated. "But before we do, I want to know where you're going."

"That's not--"

"I know
why
already," Killick said.

"You have no reason to know that," Freya said, "and I can't see how it affects your plans anyway. We're not going to pursue you, and I'm not asking you where you're headed."

"I need to know it, because I'm going along."

"What?"

"You're going to go after the Coaly bastards who started this mess. Those fuckers tried to kill me and my crew. They set me up, backstabbed me and mine. I've got crew dead down there on the planet because of those Coaly shits. I want in."

"That is out of the question, Captain Killick. I appreciate the help you've given me. I appreciate it enough that I'm
aiding you in escaping from the Hegemonic authorities
. So don't tell me I'm being ungrateful. But you have nothing to do with this operation, and you are not following my ship."

"Well. I suppose we'll have to see about that."

"If you mean to hold one of my people hostage for that information--" Freya said, voice cold with anger.

"Not at all," Nas interrupted. "I'll return your crewmate as soon as we cut acceleration, just like you asked. But I've been thinking. I figure I know where you're headed as is."

"I appreciate your willingness to return my officer, and I apologize for implying otherwise, but you are
not
following my ship," Freya said.

"How are you going to stop me?" Killick said. "Fire on my ship? Fuck that. You outgun me by a lot, but at this range, my lasers will rip you up pretty good even so. So you can't shoot me. And I can more or less figure out where you're going; it's got to be the little waypoint system where those freight-liners got ambushed. That's got to figure into this whole fucking mess somehow."

Freya said nothing.

There was no way she could allow this void-runner to follow her, but stopping him... She couldn't attack for several reasons. His ship was too close; unless her first laser salvo crippled him, his return fire would damage her ship. Then there was the fact that one of her people was on that ship; no matter that Neel wasn't part of the
Ice Knife'
s crew, she was still part of Freya's command. And last, as a matter of honor, could she really open fire on a ship whose crew had just saved her life and her mission, some of them dying to do it?

A signal from Sensors called at her attention, interrupting her thoughts.

"Captain," Sensors sent, "we have an FTL emergence pulse."

Freya accepted the data stream, seeing what her Sensors Officer was focused on. The electromagnetic pulse of a wormhole emergence had flashed into being, almost directly in line with the
Ice Knife'
s present vector. Precise range was hard to determine with only a single pulse of energy and no way to triangulate, but Sensors estimated it at  some fifteen million kilometers away, which would make the data almost a minute old from light speed lag. Sensors was designating the new contact as Delta-Four.