Project Starfighter (20 page)

Finally, he saw the frigate’s rear
shield break, the field splintering like shattered glass.

“Rockets! Missiles!” Chris
barked to the mercenaries. “Everything you’ve got! Fire at the
engines!” He dispensed all of the Firefly’s rockets and missiles
himself, aimed straight for the
Vizier
’s engines. Several
missiles fell to the frigate’s countermeasures, but not all of
them. The unguided rockets, too, were impervious to such systems. A
torrent of cannon fire joined them about the point of impact, and he
saw the glow of the engine start to fade.

“Now, Sid!” Chris cried. “Kill
the Halls!”

“Done,” Sid responded, after
what felt to Chris like a minute.

There was no visual indication that
anything had happened, no flickering of running lights or any such
thing. All that Chris saw was that the engines of the
Vizier
had failed and that the ship was continuing onward. He released the
timeslip, slowing himself, and watching as the frigate slid towards
the Alpaca Group. He was sure his plan was now clear to everyone.

In preparing to take down the
mercenary’s base of operations, the
Vizier
had been heading
straight for the Alpaca Group. It had been moving at quite a speed,
likely intending on slowing once it was in range and prevent itself
from entering into the deep cluster of rocks. Now, unable to stop
itself, the frigate smashed headlong into one of the tumbling
asteroids, going up as soon as contact was made.

“Ha!” Tyler’s voice came over
Chris’ comms. “Couldn’t find a way to bring a rock to it, so
you brought
it
to the
rocks
! Clever, boy!”

Chris grinned to himself. “You’re
welcome. And please don’t call me ‘boy’. My name is Chris.”

Tyler didn’t answer him, a frantic
voice cutting in over Chris’ comms.

“... are coming this way! We’re
going to try to shoot them down.”

Chris saw fire erupting from the
asteroid that had been the
Vizier
’s target, and briefly
caught the glitter of light as it reflected off the sleek bodies of
some pipe-like objects hurtling towards it. Missiles or rockets.

“Too late! Everyone brace for
impact!”

It’s an asteroid
, Chris
thought.
Missiles can’t hurt it.

Those aren’t missiles
, the
Firefly told him.

“Then what—”

The bright, instantaneous flash
caused Chris to cover his eyes. It was brighter than the sun on the
clearest day, brighter than the explosion of the
Vizier
as it
had hit the asteroid that had destroyed it.

Nukes
, the Firefly said.

Chris lowered his hands once the
bright light had subsided. Rocks were tumbling everywhere, a lot more
of them now. Some had been shattered, either by the explosion of the
nukes going off, or due to the fallout of the ejecta crashing into
one another. One thing became very clear to Chris – New Chile was
gone. The city had been blown to smithereens. A nuke had somehow
found its way into the very insides of the rock and detonated from
there. It had obliterated the entire stronghold.

“What fired the nukes?” he asked
the Firefly.

The
Vizier
, just before it
was destroyed. It fired them as it entered the vicinity of the
asteroid group. It was in range a few seconds before its fatal
collision. Those few seconds were all the time it needed.

Chris swallowed hard. Had he done
that? Had he, in his attempt to destroy the
Vizier
before it
could attack the mercenaries’ base, inadvertently caused its
destruction? If he hadn’t ordered Sid to kill the warship’s Hall
thrusters, would it have simply ground to a halt outside of range?
Possibly.

Hell, this wasn’t good. He
fingered the flight stick in front of him nervously, not knowing what
to do. He wondered if Tyler and the other mercenaries who were still
alive would soon start pointing the finger. He shouldn’t be here if
and when that happened.

“I think we should make ourselves
scarce, Chris,” Sid said, as if reading his mind. “I doubt that
WEAPCO will stand by and do nothing, even if they have completed
their mission objectives.”

“Agreed,” Chris said, watching
as a few of the mercenary ships started to weave their way gingerly
between the tumbling asteroids, in an attempt to discover what had
happened to their stronghold, and if there was anything left of it at
all. Many of the mercenaries were holding back, sensing the danger of
the disturbed rocks. The merest brush could crush those flimsy
fighters in moments.

“Let’s get over to Hail,”
Chris said, swinging around and starting back towards the space
station, where Sid was waiting for him. “See if you can pull up the
jumpgate schedule.”

“It would be better if we could
get hold of a jump-capable ship, ourselves,” Sid said.

“Yes, that would be useful.
Something biggish. See what you find in used ship sales. You can just
use some of your jiggery-pokery to get us some money to pay for it.”

“Already looked into it,” Sid
said. “They’ve got nothing here. The only ships that are in any
way jump-capable belong to WEAPCO. We can hardly steal those –
they’re all AI bound and we’d never be able to get within fifty
metres of them, let alone get aboard and rip out the AI modules.”

I can help you with that
, the
Firefly offered Chris.

“How?” Chris asked.

I’ll just ask them nicely.

“What?”

I’ll ask them to help us
,
the Firefly said, smoothly.
And if that fails, I’ll order them
to.

“Sid, the Firefly’s got an idea.
It’s going to try to talk one of the automated WEAPCO vessels into
assisting us. Stand by, I’ll be back there ... soon.”

Even with the speeds attainable by
the Firefly, Chris knew it would be several hours before he was back
at the Ceradse space station. He looked behind himself and then to
the radar. The mercenaries that hadn’t lost their lives were
inching their way into the Alpaca Group, to look for survivors and
what now remained of their base. Though it might not be entirely his
fault, Chris was sure he was in some way to blame for the base’s
destruction.

“How fast can you go?” he asked
the Firefly.

Fast enough that they won’t be
able to catch us
, the fighter responded.

“Yeah, let’s go that fast,
then,” Chris said.

The Firefly sped away.

~

The
fighter did as it promised. Berthed outside Ceradse space station was
a WEAPCO vessel, named the
Artful Dodger
. According to the
schematics provided by the Firefly, it possessed a cargo hold large
enough to accommodate around a dozen or so small craft. It suited
Chris and Sid’s needs down to the ground.

Whatever the Firefly did, Chris
wasn’t entirely sure. The exchange lasted less than a second. It
declared it was going to initiate discussions with the freighter, and
was then given clearance to land.

The
Dodger
was unmanned,
though it still had fully operational life support systems, as well
as crew quarters and a recently replenished stock of food and water.
The AI module inside introduced itself as TF-951. Chris introduced
himself as the ship’s new captain. It made no objections, and upon
Chris’ order commenced the jump to Hail.

[Encrypted
Data Transmission]

[To
>> Lance Skillman, CEO]

[CC
>> Erik Overlook]

[From
>> Kline Kethlan]

[Subject
– Mission 3412]

@KethlanK
– Mission 3412 has been successfully completed, but not without
significant losses.

@OverlookE
– The mercenary base within the Alpaca Group has been destroyed?

@KethlanK
– Yes. The
Grand Vizier
deployed seven guided nuclear
missiles into the asteroid at the first opportunity. They entered
through the deflector field we identified, and destroyed the base
from the inside.

@SkillmanL
– What exactly were our losses, Commander? The word ‘significant’
troubles me.

@KethlanK
– The
Grand Vizier
, as well as all the fighters that
escorted her to the system.

@SkillmanL
– How could you have allowed the
Grand Vizier
to be
destroyed, Commander?!

@OverlookE
– Was this the work of the
Centurion
?

@KethlanK
– The
Centurion
was taken down by the
Vizier
within a
few minutes of its appearance. Contrary to initial reports and
analysis, the vessel was not a single unit but was actually composed
of several; it was created via a union of more than three dozen
separate parts. The craft were able to operate independently and
combine together as needed, to create a more powerful weapon.

@OverlookE
– Interesting. How much data did we manage to collect on the
individual craft and the nature of their union before they was
destroyed?

@SkillmanL
– Erik, those details are irrelevant! Commander, how did you lose
the
Vizier
? It should not have been possible to lose a vessel
of that calibre to a bunch of pirates and looters.

@KethlanK
– Reports are currently being verified, but it is believed that the
mercenaries were being assisted by a Firefly.

@SkillmanL
– A Firefly? Our
missing
Firefly? The one with the human-AI
interface?

@KethlanK
– This has yet to be confirmed. I will contact you with the full
details as soon as I receive them. Right now, I do not wish to
comment on the situation until there is more information available.

@SkillmanL
– But assuming that it is the same starfighter, what can we say
about its behaviour? Was the Firefly acting of its own accord, or has
it been convinced by the mercenaries to turn against us?

@KethlanK
– Perhaps both. There is recorded footage of the battle that shows
the Firefly reacting and making decisions that are more consistent
with that of a human, rather than an AI, sentient or not. It shows
the Firefly working to take down the
Grand Vizier
in less than
three minutes, from the point of initial engagement.

@OverlookE
– I would like to see that footage.

@KethlanK
– Transmitting.

@OverlookE
– It looks like a mixture to me. The decision making is more in
line with that of a human, but the reaction speeds suggest otherwise.

@SkillmanL
– Who or what is in control of that fighter is irrelevant. We must
destroy that fighter as soon as possible. This is to be made our
number one priority. I do not care one jot about its level of
intelligence or sentience. I want the recovery objective for the
Firefly to be updated to a destroy on sight order.

@OverlookE
– Sir, I would like to suggest that we still attempt to recover the
fighter. It could prove invaluable for us to discover just how this
event occurred, and how it achieved sentience in the first place.

@SkillmanL
– Your objection is noted, Erik, but as I said, I do not care.
Commander, I want that fighter destroyed.

@KethlanK
– Very well.

@OverlookE
– I would like to know who is flying that fighter.

@KethlanK
– I have received an update from the space station at Ceradse. A
man was seen entering the Firefly in a docking bay just before the
arrival of the
Grand Vizier
and her escorts to Spirit. He has
been identified as Chris Bainfield.

@OverlookE
– That name sounds familiar.

@KethlanK
– He was part of the uprising, and was thought to have been killed
around a month ago. It seems this information was incorrect. He is
now believed to be working alongside Sid Wilson. Wilson is the last
remaining on our Most Wanted list.

@SkillmanL
– I want both men killed. Make sure it actually happens this time.

@KethlanK
– As you wish, sir.

@OverlookE
– Commander, before you go – I received a peculiar report from a
drone operating within the Zetaman Human Interface Research Facility
at Murdar, informing me that a breakout attempt had been made by
Ursula Lexx. Can you comment on this, at all?

@KethlanK
– The drone is confused. I put in a request to simulate Lexx
escaping from the facility, to observe her performance and see
whether or not she attempted to draw on her abilities. I advised that
I would be present in the simulation, to add to the authenticity.

@SkillmanL
– Is what you’re saying correct, Commander?

@KethlanK
– Yes, sir.

@SkillmanL
– Fine. Have the drone taken out of service and reset. We cannot
have malfunctioning drones working at such an important location; it
represents too much of a security risk.

@OverlookE
– Sir, as we have now discovered the location of Phoebe Lexx,
should we now not kill the first twin?

@SkillmanL
– You seem very keen to dispose of this younger woman, Erik. But as
I have said before, I do not want her killed until both women have
been located, brought together, and their identities confirmed. We
cannot risk a repeat of the drone mutiny we experienced with William
Benedict, should we get the wrong person. Keep Ursula Lexx under
observation until we have found her sister.
Do not
disobey me!

@OverlookE
– Yes, sir. I won’t, sir.

@SkillmanL
– Commander, your mission as of now is to track down that Firefly,
Bainfield, and Wilson. I want all three of them eliminated.

@KethlanK
– At once. I will deal with it personally.

I
t
took Chris and Sid the best part of a day to discover the remains of
the Resistance group at Hail. Given how the survivors on Ceradse had
treated their former allies, turning Jasmine Wooding over so quickly
to the drone that had come to the diner, Chris half-expected the men
and women there to take one look at Sid and himself and offer them up
to WEAPCO, in exchange for protection.