Loyalty to the Cause (TCOTU, Book 4) (This Corner of the Universe) (17 page)

“Well,
you have until tunnel space to figure it out, Lieutenant,” Heskan warned.  “I’m
fine with using conventional propulsion in n-space but we have to conserve fuel
somewhere and since we’re speed-limited in t-space anyway, that’s the best
place to use the sail.”

“Aye,
sir.  Just realize the ship may wallow or rock a bit when we start out.  The compression
in t-space makes it difficult to ride solar pressure.”

“Just
so we’re moving forward, Diane,” Heskan stated.

Diane
snorted lightly.  “I can do
that
, Captain.  I’m just concerned about
fouling a smartline and tumbling the ship when I start.  Sailing is as much an
art as it is a science.”

“Uh,”
Truesworth’s voice, thick with concern, uttered, “tumble the ship?”  He crawled
out of his station’s console.

Diane
nodded.  “Yeah, Jack.  This freighter has a square rig and if I screw up bad
enough, I can wrap the lines around the topgallant or topsail, which will cause
an imbalance in our propulsion.  Since the masts attach to our sides instead of
dorsal and ventral, Hussy will basically start yawing uncontrollably if I don’t
de-energize the sails in time.”

Truesworth
shot Selvaggio a horrified look.  She merely shrugged confidently as she
explained, “If you do that with most ships, they call it a pitch-pole because
the ship actually flips forward onto her bow.  I’m not sure what the nautical
term for doing it with a lateral sail is.”

Ensign
Gables, sitting at the auxiliary station, offered, “We call it a flat spin in a
fighter.”

Selvaggio
nodded and winked at the ensign.  “You insecure pilot-types have to have your
own names for everything.  At any rate, I’m pretty sure I can’t throw Hussy
into a flat spin.”

“I
would prefer not to find out,” Heskan declared.  “Diane, are you really that
worried about controlling Hussy under sail?”

Selvaggio
looked at Heskan.  “Not terribly.  I was just stating the worst-case scenario. 
I’ve piloted lateen and fore-and-aft rigs on ketches before, Captain.”  Her
assertive smile bespoke of a person with a growing reserve of self-confidence. 
“I’m good at the helm, sir.  I’ll learn this.”

Heskan
nodded once to affirm her statement and then leaned into his chair. 
What a
difference in Diane,
he considered. 
She’s really blossomed.

Behind
him, the bridge door slid open and Vernay entered.  “Lifeboat and pressure suit
are ready, Captain.”

Heskan scanned the
system display.  
Ten minutes until we reach the tunnel point and no queue at
the Titan buoy.
  “Let’s get Jennings into the boat.”

*  *  *

Starzy
Sierzant Vidic shoved Jennings through the small hatch leading to
Hussy’s
port lifeboat.  The agent’s head clipped the top of the low-hanging doorsill
with an audible thunk.

“Watch
your head, ‘Vic,” Vidic cautioned belatedly.

Jennings
turned inside the small lifeboat and stared menacingly at the Hollaran marine. 
“This isn’t over, Hollie.  I’ll hunt you down and when I do, you’ll wish I had blasted
this freighter into fragments.”

Vidic
retreated slowly from the portal and Heskan appeared.  Jennings started to move
toward him but was stopped by the sight of an M-41.  “I’d prefer not to use
this,” Heskan stated.

Jennings
shot pure malice from his eyes.  “You can never run far enough, Commander.”

“I’m
leaving the Republic, Jennings,” Heskan said.  “You’d be smart to let me.”  He
looked intently at the I.S. agent.  “I know more secrets about the Republic
than you can possibly imagine.  The Parasites… ask Brewer if he wants his plan
leaked to the entire universe.”

Heskan
looked down and reflected briefly.  “It’s madness, by the way, Jennings.  You
have to convince him not to press forward with it.  The Parasites aren’t cattle
you can simply herd from one place to the next.  They’ll spread across all of
humanity.”

“The
secretary knows what he’s doing,” Jennings argued.

“Not
in this case, and if you chase Hussy I’ll make sure every citizen knows about
the Parasites and what the secretary is plotting,” Heskan vowed.  “And it’s not
just the Parasites.”  Heskan stared coldly at Jennings as he threatened, “Ask
Brewer if he wants Praxidike out of the bag.”  He firmly repeated over
Jennings’ confused expression, “I want you to tell Brewer that I promised I’d spill
my guts about Praxidike if a system defense ship so much as thrusts in our
direction.  Do you hear me?”

Jennings
remained silent while Heskan continued.  “Let this sleeping dog lie, Aaron.  I
haven’t yet and I never will hurt the Republic… if you let us slip away.”

Heskan
reached up to the control panel and the portal slammed shut.  Seconds later, automatic
thrusters fired and the lifeboat was pushed from the side of the freighter. 
Heskan activated a second button on the panel and said, “Stacy, commence our
dive to Titan.”

Hussy’s
tunnel drive activated and the
freighter entered and exited the Type B tunnel simultaneously.  The shift in physics
caused Heskan to clutch the vertical handrail next to the lifeboat evacuation
portal as his stomach twisted into knots.  He swallowed fiercely until his
vision cleared and he could support his own weight again.  Shaking off the last
of the nausea, he reached the stairwell and climbed toward the upper
half-deck.  Once at the top, he took less than half a minute to return to the
bridge.

Hussy’s
system plot displayed a mass of
chaos centered on Titan’s G6V yellow star.  Of the six planets extending
outward, two were inhabitable outright and a third planet’s surface was dotted with
multiple domed cities.  While the domed planet was nearly the size of Terra
herself, the two fully habitable planets were considered “super-earths.”  Yama
and Yami, each roughly three times the size of Terra, supported ecosystems suitable
for humans.  Past the three planets and beyond a mineral-rich asteroid belt resided
the gas giants of Titan.  The sixth and final body from Titan’s star was a gas
dwarf with a strong enough gravity well to heat two of its moons through tidal forces
and radiation belts, permitting numerous energy farms on their surfaces.  Orbiting
well past her planets, Titan hosted numerous Type A tunnel points and multiple,
priceless Type B tunnel points.  The planets, moons, asteroid belt and tunnel
points united to make the Titan system one of the most important systems in all
of human space.  If the Bree system was the soul of the Republic, Titan was its
beating heart.

Scattered
around Titan’s natural features, nearly five hundred ship beacons pulsed on
Hussy’s
system plot.  Course lines extended from their sterns to clutter the display to
near unreadability. Civilian ships dominated the space lanes in the form of
freighters transporting goods between tunnel points and local commerce vessels
shuttling between planets.  Other commercial traffic, ranging from pleasure craft
and transports to ore extractors and maintenance ships, augmented the countless
ship markers illuminated on the plot.  Sprinkled intermittently among the
plethora of beacons, dozens of system defense ships policed the travel lanes
and maintained order over what appeared to be unreserved anarchy.

Hussy
rotated in-system to follow the
standard commercial traffic pattern and glided noiselessly past the two mammoth
citadel defense forts holding stoic vigil near the Anthe tunnel point.

Heskan
displaced Vernay at the captain’s console and ordered, “When we clear the exit pattern,
make best course for the Bree tunnel point, Diane.”

Selvaggio’s
hand faltered over her controls.  “Uh, sir, if you want the most efficient
course to Bree then we should head to Lysithea.”

Heskan
cocked his head to one side.  “What?”

“Best
course to Bree from Anthe is a dive to Lysithea and then a dive to Bree,” she
explained.  “Here…”

Heskan
watched
Hussy’s
main screen flicker and change to a blank star chart of
the Republic’s “northern” sector.

“We’re
here,” Selvaggio stated and a pinpoint of light strobed in the space next to
the Anthe tunnel point in Titan.  “If we go directly to the Bree tunnel point
in Titan, that’s a distance of sixty-seven light-minutes.  However, if we
travel to the Lysithea tunnel point, we only have to travel thirty-three light-minutes.” 
Time and distance played out on the wall screen simulation before Selvaggio
continued.  “Both tunnel points are Type B so they’re instant dives.  The
distance between the Titan tunnel point in Lysithea and the Bree tunnel point
is thirty-one light-minutes, plus the instant dive into Bree.”

Heskan,
still slightly confused, asked, “So, we end up saving ourselves…”
Thirty-three
light-minutes plus thirty-one light-minutes with the two jumps versus sixty-seven
from Titan straight to Bree. 
“…this saves us three light-minutes travel
time?  Is that right, Diane?”

“Yup,”
Selvaggio confirmed, “and it’s even better than that.  If we’re headed to
Thalassa or New London, we’ll actually dive into Bree closer to both of those
tunnel points than if we entered from Titan.”  She zoomed in on Bree’s system
chart to prove her statement.  “We’ll save even more time there.”

“New
London, that’s where we’re headed,” Vernay said.

“Then
this course is forty-two light-minutes shorter or…”  Selvaggio rapidly typed
into her console.  “About four hours and forty minutes faster.”  She spun in
her chair to look proudly at her captain.

Heskan’s
eyebrows shot up. 
Four and a half hours!
 
Why the hell is the
captain charting the course instead of using his resources properly and
delegating the job to his obviously qualified navigator?
  “Diane, I’m
sending you our entire route.  Please feel free to demonstrate to Hussy’s
captain why he should let the navigator navigate.”

Selvaggio
laughed pleasantly.  “It’s okay, Captain.  Stellar navigation can be
counterintuitive.  It’s one of the few instances where the shortest distance
between two points isn’t always a straight line.”

Heskan
nodded. 
She’s come a long, long way.
 
A year ago, I was the one
bolstering her confidence.  Now, she’s consoling me!
  Heskan chuckled
inwardly at the reversal.  “Navigator, take me to New London.  Make your speed
point one-five-C.”

“Aye-aye,
Captain,” Selvaggio replied with a smile.  “Estimated time to the Lysithea
tunnel point is three hours and forty minutes.  Jack, can you send our dive
request to the Lysithea tunnel point control, please.  The sooner we get in the
queue, the better.”

Off to his right,
Heskan heard Truesworth crack, “Aye-aye, Queen Navigator of the Universe.  I
humbly serve you.”

*  *  *

Brewer
growled in frustration when his datapad chirped with yet another of Neal’s comm
requests.  He batted the face of the datapad and answered tersely, “What now?”

“Mr.
Secretary, they’re gone!”

“Who’s
gone?” Brewer asked.

“The
prisoners, sir.  When I returned to the orbital, I checked in with surveillance
to see how the search for Truesworth was going and then walked down to the
cargo bay.  Everyone’s gone.”

Brewer
shook his head.  “Did you think to check the confinement facility?”

“Yes,
they didn’t return there.  I can’t find them and neither Heskan nor Jennings is
answering his datapad.”

Brewer
felt the first twitches of concern.  He rapidly initiated comm requests to both
of his missing resources.  “Are there signs of a fight, Neal?  Did the Hollarans
break out?”  Both comm requests remained unanswered.  Brewer sent an override
code to activate Jennings’ datapad remotely.  It did not acknowledge his
command.

“Negative,
Mr. Secretary.  Everyone is just missing!”

Brewer
read the borderline panic in his assistant’s voice.  “Don’t get hysterical, Jackson. 
They couldn’t have just disappeared.  There’s a logical explanation for this. 
Did you check inside the cargo containers for any clues?”

“The
containers are gone, Mr. Secretary.  Everything is gone!”

Palpable dread washed
into Brewer’s stomach.  He was out of his chair between heartbeats and headed
for the door.  “I’m leaving Pallene immediately.  Transfer me to the
surveillance team so I can have them start searching for Jennings and Heskan. 
I’ll be aboard the orbital in twenty minutes.  Meet me in Surveillance.” 
Brewer quashed the connection as he reached the elevator.

*  *  *

The
shuttle ride to the orbital was accomplished in record time.  Brewer entered
the I.S. surveillance control room at a speed much faster than his age would
suggest was possible.  During his ride out of Pallene’s atmosphere, he ordered
the orbital’s control tower to forward copies of their logs from the last eight
hours, well before the beginning of the morning’s events.

He
sat down with an audible huff and asked between panting breaths, “What have you
found?”

Neal
towered over an I.S. computer spook, his complexion a stark white and his eyes
wide open as if he had seen a ghost.  “This,” his assistant croaked out and
pointed to a monitor.