The Star Pirate's Folly (21 page)

“Hungry, I guess,” Bee said with a sheepish smile.

“Two days without food will do that. Let’s finish talking
after you eat, yeah?”

“But you didn’t even tell me—”

Myra stuck out her elbow for Bee to take. “Walk with me?”

“Alright, fine,” Bee grumbled as she linked arms with Myra
and started toward the kitchen. Again Bee felt the glassy heat of hardlight on
her skin, this time expecting the fabric from Myra’s dress. The surreal
conflict between what her eyes saw and what she felt was something she’d have
to get used to. Her head spun with wonder as they walked together and by the
time they got to the kitchen Bee couldn’t recall what was said along the way.

Myra sat her projection across from Bee as the girl devoured
her meal of spice sausage buns and hash brown scramble. She’d tried to ease Bee
into the rest of the tale a little at a time. First, her former life and her
relationship with Victor. Not so hard a pill to swallow for Bee, it seemed.

Truly didn’t believe her at all when Myra told him years
before. He’d said if it could really be done then anyone who could afford to
would do it. Myra told him he was exactly right. Many did—and she was far from
the first reconstructed consciousness in the system. It was shortly after that
conversation that Truly asked Victor to put him down in cryo when he wasn’t
needed, just ferry him along inside
Wanderlust
and wake him for trouble.

Myra guessed she’d rattled him. Coming to terms with what
he’d do, maybe, if he had the chance. Another life after his own? Some new kind
of existence? He and the Captain had long conversations about it as time wore
on, but Truly withdrew from Myra for a while after he found out. He never quite
felt comfortable with her presence the same way he did when she was just an
artificial intelligence. They worked together as crewmates but Truly kept his
distance.

Bee’s reaction delighted Myra. The girl was fascinated; all
during breakfast she kept gawking.

“Can you pick anything up?” Bee asked.

“Nope.” Myra reached out to grab Bee’s cup. As she tried to
lift it her skin slipped along the length of the cup, unable to grip it between
her fingers. “Hardlight can only exert enough force to provide haptic
feedback—like when you press a button on one of my screens. Safety reasons.”

“Can you feel it?”

“Not in the way you do, but I suppose so. I know where I’m
touching it.”

Bee shoved her empty plate aside and took Myra’s hand in
both of her own, inspecting it.

“What happened to you?” she asked, looking into the
projection’s eyes.

There it was, Myra thought, that connection. Trust.
Closeness. It didn’t matter that when Bee looked into the hologram’s eyes there
was nothing really looking back—the illusion of humanity was all Myra needed.
Human feedback, more than just the sound of her voice. Only so much could be
communicated effectively without a body. Eye contact, body language—every
detail mattered.

“We made it safely to one of Ymir’s moon bases, on the far
side of the planet from the gate. The raiders were on their way and Victor
couldn't stand by and do nothing,” Myra said. “But he knew anyone who went out
after them might not come back. I was no fighter. I stayed with the rest of our
passengers on the moon. Victor left with every other ship he could convince to
join him and intercepted the raiding parties before they got to Ymir.”

“Brave.”

A sad smile touched Myra’s face. “The pirates weren’t
expecting a preemptive attack. At first things went well. But after Victor’s
volunteers gained the upper hand some of the pirates made a break for the moon
base. If he’d had more ships he might have been able to do it. There were just
too many. Without everything he had his little fleet would’ve crumbled. He
couldn’t chase the attackers without losing everything.”

“He had to choose,” Bee said.

“The only other option was total defeat. Victor managed a
slim victory over the main group of raiders, but it took hours to get back to
the moon base. With no defenses the base had long since been overrun. We fought
to the end with what we had, but it didn’t take long for them to… well, they
killed all the men.”

Bee looked away and swallowed, swiped a tear from her cheek.

“Victor and the rest came back and retook the base. They
found me and a few others barely alive, managed to get us stable in cryo pods.
My injuries were fatal, though, given time—they could only delay my death. So
that’s what he did. Loaded me up on
Wanderlust
, kept me frozen for the
next ten years. That’s how long it took him to kill Dreadstar. He knew no one
would be safe until then.”

“I didn’t know that was why he did it,” Bee said. “That it
was all for you. How did you end up the way you are now?”

“Before Dreadstar came we were wealthy. Victor had his
soldier’s pay and we made money from trade. After he brought down Dreadstar he
became extremely influential as well. Everything we had went to making me this
way. It was a controversial process, outlawed even back in those desperate
times. Victor didn’t care. He’d seen it done before for others so he made it
happen again.”

“I guess that’s how come you’re not on the Record too?”

“Yep,” Myra said. “Cleaned it up.”

Bee sat back in her seat looking bewildered. “Huh.”

“Victor knows you now. He trusts you. That’s why I’m telling
you all of this—so you realize how much we all have in common.”

“Part of the crew,” Bee murmured.

***

“If we’re extremely lucky we’ll hit the right asteroid
first,” Captain Anson said, gesturing at the projected map of the Luxar system
in front of him and Silver. “Only a little lucky and it’s the second.”

The tumbling asteroid belt Styx took up the majority of the
display, most of the rocks smaller than grains of sand at current scale. Like
dust they hung there, swirling slow and gentle through space.
Wanderlust
sailed along into the belt, their course from Optima plotted as a thick white
line. Their first destination glowed bright green along with another of its icy
brothers near Optima.

“And if we aren’t lucky at all?” asked Silver.

“Then we’ll go after another one. And if we get nothing
there, the next. Myra’s got a whole list of candidates for us. I made it clear
when I offered you this position how committed I am to this, did I not?”

Silver grunted his agreement but scowled with displeasure at
their plotted route. “Three empty rocks means up to a year out there without
resupply. That’s a long float through hostile territory.”

“None of the three is actually any more likely than any
other,” offered Myra’s voice from above. “These are just the three closest to
us. There are other potentials scattered across the belt.”

“How many?” Silver asked. “Total.”

“Well, there were a lot of possibilities. After I decoded
the map I tried the coordinates, but they specify locations in space from the
time the map was created. Cross-referencing available Record data with those
locations gave me the names of any asteroids that passed near those coordinates
during the time it was reported Dreadstar went into the belt. These three stuck
out from the rest. They’re all D-types like the ones in the comet cloud at the
far edge of the system, whereas the rest of Styx is all carbonaceous or
metallic. They don’t belong here.”

“So you’re guessing,” Bill said, deadpan.

“Well you have to understand—” Myra began, cut short when
Bill wiped a hand down his face and groaned with exasperation. “Yes. More or
less.”

“Captain,” he said, “what exactly do you think our chances
are of making it through this without getting into any serious engagements?”

“Depends where Starhawk went after Surface,” Anson said.
“I’m thinking since he got rid of his hostage he’s not interested in dealing
with anyone from the Core anymore. He’ll stay clear of Optima. Trashed most of
his fleet on Surface so if he’s planning on heading into the belt after us he’s
gonna need fresh ships.”

“Plenty of Family territory he could find new recruits in,”
Silver mused, leaning over the projected map. “Donovan, Ocampo, some Lee. Myra,
light them up?”

Dozens of asteroids on the inner fringe of the belt near
Optima emitted a colored glow as Myra marked each Family’s territory—Donovan in
blue, Ocampo in yellow, and Lee in red.

“This is just based on recent data,” Myra said. “Everything
with a grain of salt. They’ve been shifting around a lot, using temporary
outposts for raids.”

“Fat lot of good the Core Fleet did out there,” Silver said
with a snort. “They’ve started up again already.”

Captain Anson frowned and peered across the map at his
quartermaster. “You really think any of them would be willing to join up with
Starhawk after how many of his own men he threw at Surface?”

“You mean after he made a suicidal attack on the Core and
somehow slipped away to tell the tale? Embarrassed and humiliated the most
dominant military force in this system?” Silver gave a firm nod. “They’ll flock
to him after this, I guarantee it. We’ve just seen the tipping point in the
balance of power out here. The Families are losing grasp and Starhawk’s about
to pick up the pieces.”

“That’s trouble for us if we find nothing but ice on these
first two rocks. Those two will only be a month’s travel since they’re coming
our way, but that’s still plenty of time for Starhawk to gather another fleet
and come after us. The third is deeper into the belt, almost halfway, and
downstream—we’ll have to turn back the way we came and chase it down. That one
could be six months on the float.” The map zoomed out as Anson spoke and Myra
lit up the third D-type asteroid in green, plotting bright lines between all
three. “If we don’t get lucky with one of the first two, I can pretty well
guarantee Starhawk will find us before we get to the third.”

“Why not go for that one first? Put some distance between us
and them?”

Anson stared at the pair of glowing asteroids. “Two chances are
better than one. Can’t just leave them—they’re at perihelion right now. We’d
have to wait years for another opportunity.”

The Quartermaster glared at the map as he stroked his chin.
“I don’t like it. We’re stretching. Should have been easier than this.”

“Not much to like,” Anson admitted. “No turning back now,
though. We’re on the run. Myra, gather the troops. Time to bring everyone up to
speed.”

For the first week of travel the crew kept to their usual
routines. Bee and Truly stuck to the basics of moving around in the nullroom.
Truly put a lot of emphasis on daily improvement, constantly pushing her to
beat her lap times during drills. She even grazed his heel once in a game of
tag. All those hours were starting to pay off.

In the time she had off from the nullroom Bee shadowed Ferro
on the bridge to learn about the ship’s controls and how pilots navigated the
space between planets. She also got the most face time with Captain Anson
there. They hadn’t spoken at all about what Bee learned from Myra—he never
mentioned it and Bee couldn’t summon the courage to bring it up.

Even Silver was getting more comfortable with her. He took
her on a full tour of
Wanderlust
and explained how the ship was built,
answering any questions she had along the way. The stocky Quartermaster
actually seemed to enjoy her curiosity. He took particular pleasure in showing
her the ship’s mass-driving gravity cannons, their most effective offensive
measure—and the most spectacular by far.

“The standard no-nonsense shells are wrapped with nullsteel
except for the nose,” Silver had said as Myra projected him a model of the slug
to illustrate his point. “The gravity cannons need something to pull on to
launch them so they’re not covered completely. The wrapping reduces the weight
of the payload upon firing, requires less energy. But when it hits it’s all
there.”

Bee had begged him to demonstrate, but out in the belt
Wanderlust
had nothing to target. They were still thousands of miles from anything.

A few days later, though, Myra woke Bee in the middle of the
night and told her to meet Silver on the bridge. When Bee showed up Ferro was
there too, looking cranky.

“I can’t believe we’re taking a detour for this,” Ferro
snapped at Silver. “Costing us time out here.”

“It would be nice to know we’re fully operational,” he said.
“I’d hate to find out we’ve got equipment troubles when we suddenly find the
need to defend ourselves. Besides, it’s barely out of our way and it’s always
best to fire on a live target.”

“Whole damn trip’s out of my way,” she said, but relented
with her complaints when Bee entered. “You’re just in time to see the show.”

“What show?” Bee asked.

“There,” Silver said, pointing to two display windows above
the holographic map of Styx.
Wanderlust
was on one—the feed came from a
recon drone alongside the ship. The other window displayed an oblong soot-gray
asteroid. “You see that rock? It’s a meteoroid about thirty feet across. We
were going to pass within a couple hundred miles of it on the way to our first
stop. I asked the Captain to nudge our course a bit, get us into firing range.
To test our targeting systems,” he explained.

Bee hid her smile from the Quartermaster. “Very responsible
of you.”

“Myra, you got a bead on it?” Silver asked.

“Oh, I’ve got it. Permission to fire.”

“Fire when ready.” Quartermaster Silver gave the order with
a growl, grinning and clenching his metal hand into a fist.

“Ten seconds. I’ll have to lead it by quite a bit, Bill. You
want to make a bet?”

“Yeah, you’re hot shit, aren’t you? I made that mistake once
already.”

“Come on, I’ve missed before. Can’t win if you don’t play,”
Myra taunted. “Five seconds. Ferro?”

Ferro shook her head. “This ship, these guns, on a steady
target—Myra, if you miss I’ll die of shock.”

“Two, one—
firing
,” Myra finished.

The window displaying
Wanderlust
zoomed in as one
cannon revealed itself from beneath a retracting panel on the hull. The cannon
flashed green as the shell launched, but Bee didn’t even see it go. She didn’t
feel any vibrations or anything. The panel snapped back into place and the ship
looked just as it did before firing the shot.

In the other window, the meteorite continued to hang
motionless in space. Bee held her breath as her anticipation grew, the seconds
dragging on until she was sure Myra must have missed. Just when she was about
to say something snarky a flash of light consumed the screen as the shell tore
into its target. Silver crowed and Ferro pumped a fist in the air.

“Good hit!” the Quartermaster said. He ribbed Bee with an
elbow. “Maybe we save the next one for Starhawk, huh?”

Bee watched fragments of the pulverized meteoroid as they
tumbled through a cloud of dust and vapor onscreen. The thing had probably been
rolling along for thousands of years and then just like that—ended in an
instant. That wasn’t what she promised.

Bee clenched her jaw. “Too quick for him. He needs to
suffer.”

Ferro went quiet and made herself busy in the pilot’s chair.
Silver stepped away from her and straightened, putting his Quartermaster’s face
back on. He cleared his throat with a cough.

“Good hit,” he repeated. “Targeting systems are green.
Testing cannon two, fire when ready.”

“Thanks,” Bee mumbled to Silver as she left. She didn’t want
to watch the rest.

***

Victor finished dressing himself in a hurry. “You made me
late. I was supposed to be on the bridge already.”

“Is smashing rocks more exciting than I am?” Myra asked,
arching an eyebrow. She rose from the bed, clothing materializing on her as she
stood, and followed Victor as he left his quarters.

“There’s not a thing in the ‘verse excites me more than you,
my dear,” Victor said, turning his head to wink at her.

He started up the short ramp to the bridge and almost plowed
into Bee on her way out the door. She turned her shoulders and squeezed by both
him and Myra without a word, heading for her room.

Victor called after her. “Yeah, no need to salute or
anything, I’m only Captain here.”

Bee ignored him and kept her head down as she rounded the
corner.

“I’ll check on her,” Myra said, waving Victor on. “Go ahead,
I’ll be on the bridge too.”

He shrugged and continued on his way. Inside, Silver and
Ferro shared an awkward silence together, exchanging glances with each other as
the Captain entered.

“Something wrong with Bee?” Victor asked.

Silver shrugged. “Thought she might like to see the guns in
action. Something wrong with that girl.”

Victor grunted. “It’s just that kind of keen insight I keep
you around for, Bill. So how’d the testing go?”

“All green,” Silver said.

“That’s what I like to hear. Myra, howbout those recon
drones we sent ahead? We got visual yet?”

“Spectral imaging from the drones confirms mostly
silicates,” Myra said from above. “That rock is definitely not from around
here. Another few hours and we’ll be able see if there’s anything interesting
on the surface.”

“Any ships nearby?” Victor asked.

“Nothing they can see. Only short range scanners, though.”

“We’ll keep moving in. How long would you guess it’ll take
them to do a thorough check of the whole rock? If there’s anything at all it’ll
be well hidden.”

“By the size of it I’d say no more than sixty hours.”

Victor winced. “Is that all.”

“If you want thorough. We don’t know where one of these
stashes might be, assuming we’re even looking in the right place. My guesses
are only as good as the information I was given, so don’t blame me when we end
up gallivanting around the belt for no reason just because your map gave me bad
locations.”

“We
are
going to find something out here,” Victor
said. “Slack Dog was right there with them when they divvied up Dreadstar’s
stockpile. He saved a copy of that map for all these years to cash in one day.
Kept his mouth shut. Kept it to himself. What happened when he finally broke
that silence? He got killed for it. That means his map led to something worth
going after.”

“I believe it,” Silver said. “Starhawk wanted it bad.”

“Still does. He’s out there somewhere.”

***

Bee paced back and forth in her room while Myra sat
cross-legged on the bed. The door was open so that Myra could project inside,
but Bee was tempted to shut it, annoyed that the AI insisted on keeping up the
illusion. She felt the urge to lash out with something nasty but kept her
silence instead, leaving the poison stewing inside.

“If I’m bothering you I can leave,” Myra said.

Bee glanced up at the projection and shrugged but continued
pacing the room. “It’s not you.”

“Then what?”

It took a moment for her to say anything. “Starhawk.”

“You don’t think we’ll find him? You’ll get your chance if
things keep up this way. As long as we’re out here he’ll be after us. And the
longer we’re here the more likely it is he’ll find us. Starhawk didn’t have the
Families on his side before. Now he could have eyes all over the place looking
for us.”

“Yeah, and if they find us what then?”

“Either we kill them or they kill us.”

“That’s just it,” Bee said. “I don’t just want to kill him
from way out without him even knowing everything. I promised Mother—”

“I know. You talk about it in your sleep.”

“My whole life that’s all I’ve thought of. Every moment I’ve
lived since that day has been spent in pursuit of one goal. He can’t just end.
You can’t just snuff him out. I need to make him feel what I’ve felt. What my
mother felt.”

“You can’t,” Myra said.

Bee glared. “You
think
I can’t.”

The AI held Bee’s stare. “I’ve watched every second of your
progress up to this point. You couldn’t hold a candle to any one of Starhawk’s
grubs, let alone the man himself.”

“What—” Bee sputtered.

“Not without me, anyway.”

Confused and angry, all she could manage was to repeat
herself. “What?”

“Come with me,” Myra said as she stood and left the room.

Bee followed Myra’s projection as it led her through the
ship to the nullroom. She burned to ask more questions but held her tongue along
the way. Myra stood in front of the door for Bee to open it, and she did so.
Truly was waiting for her just inside the entrance to the cavernous area,
leaning against the lockers in full suit except for the helmet at his feet.

“It’s your lucky day,” Truly said with a smile. “Ready for
an upgrade?”

Bee couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m not sure.”

“Open your locker,” he said. “I just hope it all fits.”