Shackleton's Folly (The Lost Wonder Book 1) (13 page)

Dancer keyed in access codes and coordinates into the nav computer. “Course entered. O, here we come.”

Alec looked over his shoulder to Electra, noticing her run through system checks. “Hang on! This could be bumpy,” he said, preparing to engage the FTL drive. He stopped. “They have FTL-dampening ships out.”

The
Illia
and
Saleen
had deployed FTL field-dampening ships in a screen across the projected path of the
Quest
. This meant that, if the
Quest
traveled through that screen, the FTL field required to attain Faster Than Light speed would collapse, and the engines would shut down. They would revert to normal space speed, and they would be captured. It was a standard procedure used in stopping smugglers from running a blockade. Alec and Dancer had some experience running these blockades.

“Tracking Koty ships coming up from the planet. No way to go back.”

Alec scanned the deployment of FTL dampers. “This will be close.” He changed the course of the
Quest
to align with a different coordinate in space. It was a new starting position needed for his plan. Alec re-keyed the programmed FTL course into the navigation system. The
Quest
raced toward the starting position. The calculations made the yacht hit the coordinate just as programmed.

The
Quest
blurred as it snapped to FTL speed and almost instantly fell back to normal space as they hit the dampening fields. The ship’s burst of speed threw off the pursuers as they lost the
Quest
from their screens.
Quest
’s now sub-light speed and course took the ship through a small gap in the net meant to ensnare them. The ship hurtled through the FTL-dampening fields, the ships, and their supporting fighter groups that had been sent to capture them. The
Quest
sped by the command bridge of the
Illia
, quickly making a break for the open space to be found on the far side of the battleship.

Alec reset the FTL engines as they left the influence of the FTL dampers behind the
Illia
. He hit the button for a second time in less than a minute. The aft of the ship burst to life as the engines fired up, and the
Quest
blurred as it left normal space and vanished.

The Skiptracer ship rose out of the atmosphere. The course it had taken was in the general direction of the Koty and their fleet. It fired up its FTL engines to pursue and blurred into hyperspace, but, just as suddenly, it dropped back into normal space as if it had hit an invisible wall of clear gel. The FTL dampers had captured the ship as if it were an insect in amber. The ship sputtered and then stopped, drifting into the line of FTL damper ships.

The bridge remained at full efficiency. The expansion of Koty Union territory provided ample time for the crew to become fully integrated with the ship and with one another.

Captain K’Dhoplon presided over the group from his command chair. He had been in three major campaigns with them. They were not what he would have chosen to go into battle with, but they would follow obediently and not question his orders. It was hard to find staff that was both good and obedient at the same time. His last first officer was excellent at his duty and had drilled the ship’s crew relentlessly. They had even put his first officer above him as most trusted commander, an unfortunate circumstance for the first officer, who had to be found wanting and then executed before he got any ideas about the ship’s Captaincy. His first officer even swore an oath of allegiance to the Captain as he was being put to death. It was very unfortunate for everyone concerned.

Captain K’Dhoplon surveyed his current command staff; his attention stopped when he reached the human. That creature needed to be removed from the ship, but doing so would create problems for the mission. The Exalted One had them on some kind of archaeological dig instead of crushing worlds and softening them up for occupation. The recovery of forgotten technology on a dead world brought none of the recognition the defeat of an opposing fleet would. It was not the glory he had come to expect as Captain of this great ship. The human had convinced the Exalted One that he could find a treasure trove of First Ones’ technology, tech that would give the Koty the edge in their plans to expand across the galaxy. He had seen nothing to convince him that the human Wolfgang Gray knew anything. As a matter of fact, what Gray had done was to have them follow this other human, Shackleton. Shackleton was the key.

Gray ran his hands over the inscription recovered from the
Quest
, Shackleton’s ship. The pink material had undergone extensive analysis and testing. Its composition was that of a very dense crystalline optical circuitry and some internal power system that allowed for memory and display functions. The unique part of this functionality was that, if it were broken, each of the smaller pieces would also be able to function independently of the larger, whole unit. Like a hologram, the broken piece had the same information imprinted on it as the whole, larger piece. It just worked at a lower power level proportional to its new size. It was hard to estimate just how big the rest of this inscription would be.

“What is it?” asked Captain K’Dhoplon.

Gray managed, “It’s part of something larger, but we have no way of telling how much larger. It has an inscription, writing, on it. I am unfamiliar with the language, and your computers are unable to translate it.”

“The Koty Union have the largest databases for all things, including translation. You have simply failed to input the data requested correctly. I will have a Koty technician do the search for you. Remind me why I need to keep you alive?”

“The Exalted One wishes it so, and your technician will do no better in translating the inscribed language to anything we now know, including the knowledge databases that you acquired in your expansion. This is a dead language.”

“Is this what Shackleton searches for?” Captain K’Dhoplon tried to find a reason that could justify the death of this tiresome human.

“It’s only one piece of the puzzle,” Gray stated, “one Shackleton can’t do without.”

“I have listened to your reports to the Exalted One, human. Do not think your life is safe because you live. You have value to the mission; if we fail, your life is forfeit.”

*

Gray paced the floor to the right of Captain K’Dhoplon, sprawled over his command chair. Gray knew he had to come up with some new information that would placate the Captain. Somehow he would extend the mission and his life.

Gray stopped and walked over to K’Dhoplon. “Captain, I want you to follow the signal of the tracking device you had planted on the
Quest
. Don’t get too close, but don’t lose them. I want it to be a surprise when we drop in on them.”

“Tracking device’?” said Captain K’Dhoplon, sounding casual about the breach in protocol.

“During the search on the
Quest,
you had a passive hyperspace tracking unit placed in the outer hull as far as was feasible from the ship’s interior.” Gray returned the Captain’s gaze. “You didn’t want them to find it through normal interior scans.”

“A moment,” Captain K’Dhoplon replied curtly. He focused on the sensor officer. “Where is the ship?”

“The ship, Captain, is on the edge of our sensor range. It comes and goes from sensors. It currently is beyond our range but should be back soon.”

“What?!” demanded the Captain as he got up from his seat. The sensor officer looked to those around him for support. He got none.

“Are they on your screen now?” spat the Captain.

“No, sir,” replied the frightened sensor officer.

“When were they to be back on sensors?”

“They should have been back already.” The sensor officer had gone pale — which, for the Koty, meant utter terror.

“You allowed them to escape. The gods will not tolerate the great Koty founding a new empire with you among us.” Captain K’Dhoplon signaled his security staff over to the sensor station.

The sensor officer wailed and pleaded, “Captain, they should be back on screen any second.”

The two members of the security staff dragged away the offending sensor officer to the open wall unit. Each held an upper body arm. The one-way force field of the unit allowed material to be pitched in through the opening. Its chipping mechanism made it possible for material to be ejected through the door if the one-way force field was not in place while in use.

The sensor officer was pitched into the empty cylindrical space, the bin, or working space, of the vertical chipper. The chipper’s energy blades came to life, rotating through the bin at hundreds of times a minute, starting at the back wall. It could reduce a half-meter by two-meter hardwood tree trunk to sawdust in less than two seconds. The design did a fine job of chipping anything put inside it. The sensor officer’s body became a pile of bloody pulp on the floor of the chipper. The finishing cycle included an auto-rinsing agent sprayed from the top of the cylinder, working itself down to the floor. A brushing mechanism activated, followed by a second rinse cycle. The remains, having been treated with the rinse dissolve, flowed out the draining grill compromising the bottom of the chipper.

Captain K’Dhoplon turned to Wolfgang Gray. “Doctor, don’t test my patience. You humans should know your place. We Koty are the future.”

“Captain, you would be surprised at how many times someone has said much the same thing on my world,” said Gray. “It did not always work for them.” Gray glanced from Captain K’Dhoplon to the chipper. “Not to say that it won’t be a terrific success for the Koty Union, of course.”

“Of course,” came the response from Captain K’Dhoplon. He was in the process of estimating how much arc he would have to give Gray’s body to have him clear the railing and land in the chipper.

The command deck of the
Quest
was dimly lit by the control indicators and interface screens as Alec checked the long-range sensors. He keyed commands for a more sensitive energy-detection program. Alec had seen something just on the edge of
Quest
’s sensor range, but now it seemed to be gone. Even with the finest adjustments he could manage on the energy sensors, he could not get anything to show up. A good thing — since it meant that they were being followed. But was it better to know that for sure than for him to be constantly looking over his shoulder. He stared at the screens, and they remained empty of ships.

Dancer turned to Alec. “Nothing on the communication channels, and I don’t think anyone’s following us.” Dancer checked for any anomalies. “We are going to hear them coming before they see us.” Dancer got up. “I have scheduled maintenance to perform if we want to stay in space.” He left the command deck.

Electra came forward from the engineering station and took the copilot’s chair less than a meter from him. She was wearing a khaki jumpsuit she had found, paired with some combat boots. Alec could not help but notice that the jumpsuit fitted her snugly, as the material was designed to do, but yet stretched where needed and conformed to the wearer. She made it look good.

They had not talked about what had happened or not happened in her compartment. It was awkward. His emotions were in turmoil. He was full of self-doubt, questioning himself, and perhaps seeing something that was not there. He felt an attraction, and, yet, for her, it was as if the event had not happened. What had it been for her? What was he thinking? Nothing had happened other than some kissing. She certainly was offering more, but why had he not taken her? He took a slow, deep breath and filled his lungs with the scent of vanilla spice.

Electra looked out into the hyperspace corridor. “The new course is taking us spinward to the Frontier?”

*

Alec had to put his feelings behind him. Electra could be the key to saving humanity. Her people must have been out in the galaxy for thousands of years, according to Dancer’s readings of her DNA. Alec would have to find out how they managed that before recorded history began on Earth. They could have a planet suitable for the last remaining humans from Earth to evacuate to. The Registry had their population at 18,500, so small they wouldn’t take any more resources than a small town if they could find a safe place.

*

Electra had to chance it. It was chance that had brought them into the coffee house, and how fortunate it was. She had been through a number of slave masters, using them to explore the galaxy, looking for a human civilization powerful enough to provide aid to her people. Electra arranged for things to go bad once a slave master was no longer of use. She would be sold or traded to another slave master going in a new direction in space.

The mission was everything to her. When she was first captured, she fought it until she realized the advantages of staying put. She had gone to find humans and found almost none. She had assumed, without question, that those she had found were Rovers — either not in a position to help or not someone she could trust. This was an entirely new perspective. She had feared she was too late, that humanity had been hunted down and was becoming extinct. Her mission would have been a failure.

When she saw Alec for the first time, she could not believe it. He gave the appearance of a brash man, an adventurer, and, yet, he had protected her without hesitation, putting his life at great risk. Each race they came across gave every indication they would rather blast him out of his shoes as look at him. His courage and tenacity in his dealing with the other races was bold.

Then there was that moment she had let it all go.

She decided to relive the moment in her mind.

The shower felt so good, it… She needed to feel like a woman again. Back home, there were times when she had been out with friends and ended up spending the night with someone. That had not happened for a long time — not an excuse, but a statement of fact. She had felt excitement flow through her body, warming at having Alec watch her take a shower. The beating of her heart rose as the water caressed her. As the white translucent gel oozed out generously into her hand, she got even hotter, as she made a show of working herself into a lather from head to toe.