Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (4 page)

Or just
sent to attack for no real reason. He hoped it wasn't that one, because it
would mean a real attack was taking place, and likely be happening in more than
one location. Timon winced, but didn't say all of that out loud, since it was
probably the most likely scenario at the moment. No one would be after him in
particular really, unless it was his grandmother, of course. She did
not
like him.

The
other craft chased them, traveling with enough noise that he could hear it
through the air ports on the top of the craft. Otherwise the world outside was
silent enough. He kept his speed down to about half the speed of sound, and had
them over the ocean about five seconds after he started. Then, trying to line
things up carefully, he stopped suddenly and let the other craft run into them.
The whole thing shook and moved in space, since the inertial dampening function
wasn't perfect on it, but the other ship stopped moving as well, some kind of
energy flaring from it where they connected. It was hard to see and fast, but
glowed a pale blue for an instant, Tim thought. Some sort of shield?

It
certainly didn't crash, which was what he'd been expecting. Instead the thing
just turned and tried to fly off with good speed. That meant it was going
nearly seven hundred miles an hour. It was fast, he had to admit. Not faster
than they could go however. About half that, really.

"I'm
pursuing. I want to see where they head. That, or take them down." He felt
tense and a bit of sweat tried to collect in his arm pits. He had an amulet to
help with the heat, but it wasn't going to work perfectly at the moment, flying
over open water like they were.

Petra
moved to sit next to him and watched the craft carefully out the front shield
window. It tried to shift away, and even slow suddenly, to prevent him from
following, but it didn't work too well. As large as it was, being nearly ten
times bigger than the attacking vehicle at the moment at any rate, his craft
was more agile. Faster too, unless the other one had more speed than it had
shown. That was very possible. Noram didn't have any sort of lock on very fast
flying craft after all.

"Can
you force them into the water?" This came from Petra, who sounded grim and
dark, rather than her normal pleasant self. Then again, that was probably an
act. After all she'd been through, it almost had to be.

"Let's
see? I doubt it though. They're quick."

It was
enough so that each time he tried to line things up in order to force them down
they managed to slip to the side. It went on too long, it seemed, and the
others were getting a bit antsy or something. It was Bethany that pointed out
the obvious to them.

"We
need another craft, so they can't slide away like that. Sort of trap
them..." Her big hands mimicked the move, and then she shook her head.
"I could also use an ale, and a backrub to lower the tension." That
got a laugh, if only a gentle one.

Petra
stood up and started slapping at her front. It looked a bit like some kind of
insect was crawling inside her clothing, but she tapped Timon as soon as she
was done, which showed that she had her shield on at least, and he noticed that
she had an amulet in her left hand, as well as a flying rig on.

It
didn't take long to figure out what she was planning.

"Get
to the right side. I'll stop for a fifteen count. You have that long to get
out, and set up. Make sure you have your communications device, so we can
talk." Petra moved the instant he was done moving his mouth, and he yelled
loudly. "Everyone hang on! I'm stopping again in three, two,-" He
didn't say one, and the large dusky skinned woman was gone by the time he said
five. Then he waited a bit, like he'd promised, because she needed to be out of
the way. The others still seemed a bit baffled, but got the general idea by the
time they were flying again.

The
attacking vessel rushed away, but now a small, sleek looking blue and pink
rectangle flew after it, which everyone noticed. It was an old style Fast
Craft, but that just meant not as big, as well as faster. Tim had to struggle
to catch up.

"Um,
Mindy? In my side pocket, on my tunic, I have a communications device, we need
it to talk to Pet."

The girl
didn't wait or stand on ceremony, just patting and tugging at his clothing
until she had the half hand sized device made of focus stone out. She didn't
know what to do with it, but Bethany, even if she was "only a
Baronetta" clearly did, and took it from her, quickly searching for the
right name.

"Petra
Ward?"

After a
second, trying to get lined up on the left side of the vehicle, Tim nodded.

"Right.
Just tap the-" The job was already done. They had to wait for Petra to
talk to them, but a minute later she managed it, without crashing. That was a
feat, since the woman wouldn't have a handy Mindy there to help her like he
did.

"Tim?
You take that side and I'll hold this one. Try not to let it get away..."

"Right."

Then, with
only fifteen or twenty tries, they managed to move the other craft, with bumps
and nudges, slowly toward the water. Oddly enough the thing that really slowed
them down wasn't the craft moving from side to side, but actually cutting
speed. Probably because a collision with water at seven hundred miles an hour
was a death sentence. Maybe not though, if their shield held.

The
ocean was a flat slate black, except for the green tinge to it on the rough
looking surface. Timon half expected the other craft to try and move backwards,
to keep them from capturing the thing, but it didn't, just settling into the
water. It splashed a bit and threw up a white froth, but the other craft was in
one piece when it stopped.

It
floated, which his ship would too, but he didn't trust that it had really given
up. It might dive, or something.

"This
could be a trick." He said the words to Petra, but there was a grunt from
behind him, as Karl pointed.

"There's
a little door there. See? It's opening. Near the back?" It was probably
stating the obvious, and Tim had noticed it already, but he just nodded.

"Got
it. Petra?"

"I
see it. I'll go aboard and-"

"No."
Karl sounded pretty authoritarian just then, but didn't take the words back.
"We only have two pilots. We'll form a boarding team and go in. Sentle, Rodale
and I will go in first and then..."

Those
three made sense, all being large and strong young men, but Timon waved for the
man to shut up, which he did.

"I
have four shields on me, not including my own. Only two weapons and those are
both just force lances. Well, and an air lance, but that isn't much use in a
real fight. So we have two sets of gear and a few unarmed back-ups?" He
didn't have to wait long for someone to say something about his half baked idea,
since Petra cleared her throat and took charge again.

"Good
plan. Karl and Sentle can go in. Arm them. I take it you have backups?"

There
was no implied rebuke in him holding something back for himself, it was a real
situation, but he was staying shielded and armed, just in case.

"I
do. A cutter and an implosion weapon."

There
was only a brief pause, but no demand that he turn those over as well. Petra
wouldn't, unless it became really important. She knew too much about him for
that.

"Fine,
Rodale, Tim and... Mindy, you'll be the second team. Select someone to try and
fly the rest out in case you all die." She waited then, as Mindy worked
her way to the front, her eyes narrowed. She looked to be freaking out, as far
as he could tell.

Her
voice was a little harsh too, even as he handed over the various gear,
including a nice shield, which went to her without comment.

"Why...
why did she pick me? I'm nothing special as a fighter. She had to see that
earlier. She's too good not to have."

The
reason why was simple enough, Tim knew. Petra only knew three names so far.
Mindy, Karl and his. Rodale and Sentle probably weren't even real people to
her, just bodies that she didn't have faces for yet. That didn't make either
Mindy or her sound good though, so he lied, keeping his voice calm.

"Because
you're steady enough for it. She wants people that will stand their post, not
go running into danger, and that's us. The rest of these people are,"
looking around the white interior with its blue soft chairs he tried to judge
the crowd. Most of them looked scared, but in that tough person sort of way
that meant they'd still spend their lives, if they had to. "Well, they're
all a bit too brave for an unknown situation. No one will blame you and I for
running if it's needed. Rodale is stuck, of course, but he can guard us if it
comes to that. While we flee." It was too hard to keep all the play from
his voice, stressful situation or not, but the big and totally bald young man
grunted and stepped forward.

"Sounds
about right. Who's the new pilot, for when the rest of us die?"

"Bethany."
It was just about the same reason that Petra had for picking Mindy. Timon knew
her name. "I'll go over the controls." It didn't take long, since
instruction amounted to using the hand control unit carefully. Pull up to go
up, down took it down. The hard part was just in controlling things so you
didn't go too fast for where you were.

"So
when in doubt, go
up,
and practice for a while first."

The only
other big problem, other than reforming the craft to lock with the strange
vehicle below them, so that it couldn't easily escape, was communications.
Petra needed to be in the loop, but so did the boarding crew. In the end Timon
took the hand piece, since it was his, and made a ramp for the ones going to
walk down.

"Bethany,
if something goes wrong, fix the floor and leave."

"Okay.
How? I mean, how do I fix the floor?" The tall woman didn't seem all that frightened,
or stupid, but it was a bit annoying that she didn't already know how to do
everything. Sensible, being that she'd never had a chance to learn how, but
bothersome. It meant taking another two minutes to show her what to do and then
have her try it. The whole time Timon expected someone to charge out of the
other craft, given how they were connected. That or release a poison gas, or
nano attack dust or whatever they had planned. Instead it was just a whole lot
of nothing.

Too much
nothing by far.

In the
end Timon just stood there, imploder in hand, ready to fight and protect the
ramp if he had to, while Karl and Sentle slowly went in. Mindy and Rodale had
his back, since Timon was the well armed one, as it turned out. They were the
wall, if it came to it. The sacrifice to allow the others time to escape.

Suddenly,
a minute later a faint voice called out.

"Hey,
there's no one home. Not that we can find." It was the other man, Sentle,
who had a funny sounding voice that cracked a lot and was too deep for a real
person. He wasn't even a full on giant, only being about seven feet tall.
Muscular though, which might have had something to do with it.

Tim
relayed the information and then sighed.

"I'm
going to go in then and look around myself. Maybe I can sense something. Field
reading." He didn't want to, since it was probably a trap, but he walked
in anyway and motioned for Mindy and Rodale to move back up the ramp. It was a
nice black thing, with texture to it, like stone, so that it wouldn't be slippery.
Not even when washed with his blood.

The
inside of the craft was telling however. For one thing there were no windows.
Not at all. Chairs or couches either. That meant the pilot either stood at the
controls, or there wasn't one. Fortunately, that was a thing he'd heard of
before. He'd even seen something like it, in Austra.

A
computer. It was an artificial mind. If it was the same thing at least, or
something similar. The Ancients all used to use them however, so if that was
the case, and they sent it, it made sense.

"Computer...
please respond." There was only the one room inside and it wasn't big at
all, being just about big enough for seven of him to sit or stand comfortably,
or him plus the two large men he didn't really know.

Karl
gave him a look that said he didn't know who that was, and then jumped when a
soft sounding female voice responded.

With a
put upon sigh.

"Fine.
You got me. I admit it, it was all me, I throw myself on your mercy. Mea culpa
and all that sort of stuff." It didn't sound bored, but wasn't worried
either.

The
other men jumped and started splashing the walls with force lance spray. One of
the beams hit Tim, but didn't do anything, thanks to his shield. The ship
cleared her throat though.

"Excuse
me? I don't recall giving anyone a reason to hurt me. Did I offend you in some
way?"

Timon
smiled and gestured to the others to stop it.

"Sorry,
we've just never... dealt with non-human people before. May I enquire as to
your name?"

"Oh,
sure. I'm Kim." The voice was even a little flirtatious, he thought, from
the sound of it.