Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (55 page)

The Captain shouted, “Close those doors,” as he raced
forward to the Bridge. A maintenance android stood up and was just about to ask
for instructions when its head exploded as the Captain ran past with his
blaster at the ready. The Ensign closed the doors and retracted the loading
ramp. He turned and raced after the Captain.

When the Ensign reached the Bridge he jumped into the
co pilot’s seat next to the Captain. “You fly Sir. I’ll handle the ground troops.”
The Captain feverishly worked the flight controls and fired up the ship’s
engines. The Ensign set the external speaker systems to maximum power and
initiated the ‘collision eminent’ warning siren. Outside the ship an ear
piercing siren sounded and the security troops and Volen crew clasped their
hands to their ears.

The ship’s engines fired at full power and the Captain
lifted the ship off the ground and spun her around. A great cloud of dust and
debris was whipped off the hanger floor and with the maximum engine thrust also
flattened the ground troops and blew them across the floor. The cargo vessel
gained altitude quickly and sped away rapidly. The Captain grinned as he felt
the enormous power of the ship, “smuggler’s vessel,” he whispered between
clenched teeth.

“Indeed she is Sir,” the Ensign said as he was forced
back into the seat and felt his face flattening out.

The Captain with great effort pulled a remote control from
his pocket and flipped it open. He punched in a set sequence and his
Starfighter fired its engines causing the androids working on it to run for
cover. The Starfighter flew directly up through the hanger roof and accelerated
into the atmosphere. He programmed it to cloak and land on the other side of a
large mountain.

He cloaked the cargo vessel and landed beside his
Starfighter. Both the Ensign and Captain ran to the Starfighter and quickly
climbed aboard.
“Oh no!
the
Ensign complained.

“What?”

“The fuels tanks are just about empty. They must have
emptied them to find out why the sensors were playing up.” The Ensign replied.

The Captain gave him a stern look, “See what your
Quartermaster never corrected in you? Quick, get the Emperor and load in him
the smuggler’s ship and let’s get off this rock now!”

They climbed down quickly and retrieved the Emperor’s
canister and loaded it aboard the smuggler’s ship. Both the Captain and Ensign
saw the other suspended animation canister in the hold, and placed the Emperor
beside it. “I wonder who’s in there?” the Ensign said securing the canister.”

“We’ll find out later,” the Captain said hurrying to
the Bridge and fired up the engines. As soon as they were airborne the Captain
looked down at his Starfighter on the ground and with a small hesitation
flipped a switch on his remote control. His Starfighter exploded in a great
ball of flame.

“Six ships bearing 216 Captain. Coming in low sir,”
the Ensign said urgently and very quickly.

“Relax and report your observations just as you have
been trained Ensign. We need precise responses,” the Captain said calmly as he
cloaked and checked the ship’s defences.

The first enemy broad pattern phaser fire streaked
past the invisible ship.

“Multiple blast patterns from all enemy ships from
positions 236, 341 and 105,” the Ensign reported.

“Thank you Ensign.
Standard twin
ship firing pattern searching for cloaked vessels.
Computed evasive
action… initiating now. Have they fired the second wave yet?”

The Ensign saw data stream across his monitor, “yes
Sir. All ships 3 degrees left, left then right of previous position.”

“Affirmative Ensign.
Please fire a blaster charge set for minimum stun,
directly below us at the ground and mask the energy pulse.”

“Firing now sir,” the Ensign said but not knowing why
he just fired an ineffective shot at the ground below.

The commander of the attacking ships saw a disturbance
on the ground below, dust rising up from a circle on the ground. “All ships concentrate
fire on the dust cloud below, the cloaked ship has landed.” The six attacking
ships banked and dove towards the ground firing rapidly as they descended.

“Oh! Well done Sir.” The Ensign said as he saw the
enemy ships break off the broad fire engagement to fire at the ground.

“I’m glad they fell for it for the time being. Let’s
get out of this system before they realize they have been fooled,” the Captain
said and swung the ship directly upwards and gunned the overheating engines.

“Engine temperature rising rapidly.
We’ll need to
decloak
at
this present power usage,” reported the Ensign.

“Thank you Ensign,” said the Captain looking out into
the blackness of space quickly enveloping the ship. “Decreasing power level…
now!” and the ship drifted at high speed out of the system.

“Course Sir?”

“Zion system.
But find a sizable asteroid to hide behind when we
get close. We’ll need to monitor that system before we decide our next move. I
have a good feeling there will be a magnetic beacon emitter onboard this
vessel. Did you see the hold full of Irrimus marked electronics and animal
skins?”

“Yes Sir I did.”

Many sectors away a communication was intercepted by a
ship escorted by a squadron of Starfighters.
“My Lord.
I have just deciphered a communication on a civilian frequency from a moon
called Base 2 Alpha in the
Fertex
system. It reports
a single Starfighter raided the base and stole a Volen cargo ship. A
Confederate Starfighter was destroyed after it requested fuel and emergency
maintenance.”

“Ah… at last.
Set course for that base and alert our escort to go
forward and secure the area. No one is to leave it, for any reason,” the Black
Priest said and then retired to his cabin.

“Yes My Lord.”

---------

Sasra leaned against a large tree. He struggled to get
his breath as the climb was nearly vertical. He turned to look back down the
steep slope and signalled to the others below.

“OK Cassy, just one hand hold at a time and you’ll do
fine. Toormis will be right behind you,” Peter said looking up the snow laden
slope covered with trees.

Cassy brushed the fur from her hat out of her eyes and
grabbed the first tree trunk, hauling herself up as she spun around resting her
back against it. She looked up and saw dozens of trees she would have to do the
same thing and grimaced. “Some short cut Sasra!” she said with venom and lunged
for the next tree.

“Hey, good girl,” Toormis said staying one tree behind
her.

It took nearly half a time frame but at last they all
stood on top of the slope. Sasra pointed to a nearby mountain. “Trading Post at
bottom,” he said happily. Peter looked closely and realized their earlier trail
had simply gone around two very large mountains. Sasra had returned them a
shorter way but not necessarily quicker. At least no one was shooting at them
on this trip

In a short time the group saw the Trading Post in the
distance. Peter insisted on scouting the area alone while the others waited
under the canopy of a large conifer.

Peter returned a short time later and pulled Toormis
to one side so the others wouldn’t hear. “Toormis the base had been raided by
someone. There is evidence of a something landing and basically all valuables
have been stripped from the place. I think we should say our farewell to our Shihone
guides and get to the base with all haste.” Toormis nodded and went straight to
Sasra and Teni.

“Sasra, Teni we must make the last of the journey
alone. It is a tradition of my people that we return to our lodge alone to make
ready for our further journey. It was an honour to have met you and we hope
your people flourish into the future. Farewell,” Toormis said with Cassy and
the Administrator both raising their eyebrows at Toormis’s words.

Peter stepped forward and extended his hand to Sasra.
Sasra looked at him blankly. Peter grabbed his arm forcing his hand into his
and shook it. Sasra’s blank look turned into a smile as he returned the shake.
He then let go and shook everyone else’s hand including Teni and started again with
Peter. Peter laughed and said “thank you. We must leave now,” and ran toward
the base. Cassy, Toormis and the Administrator followed. Teni and Sasra stood
looking at them.

Peter stopped and stood on a small rise and raised his
gun high above his head. Teni and Sasra returned the salute and then Peter was
gone. Toormis, Cassy and the Administrator turned and waved. The two Shihone
kept their guns raised until they all disappeared over the rise.

Peter and Toormis covered each other as they quickly
covered the ground to the Trader’s Cabin. The Administrator stayed with Cassy
bringing up the rear. Peter rushed into the cabin and straight into the
complex. He sensed no one was in the base and ran back outside. He saw Toormis
a short distance away examining a snow covered crater and then a nearby damaged
tree. Toormis left the tree and jogged to Peter.

“There’s been a single explosion over there. It’s not
from a missile or energy bolt. More like a set charge, interesting,” he said
and walked inside. Peter signalled to the Administrator and Cassy to come
forward. They moved quickly over the open ground and Peter kept them covered
until they were safely in the cabin.

“We’ve had visitors,” Peter said, “they stripped the
place of easily taken valuables, even the androids.”

“Torquay!” said the Administrator. He looked concerned
as he ran into the space dock and into the transport ship. He immediately
noticed the control panels and instruments were ripped out of the ship and the
canister with Torquay was gone!

“It must be smugglers. It has to be,” the
Administrator said angrily.

“But who?”
Cassy asked standing by the loading ramp.

“Volen I’ll bet,” the Administrator said, “but how do
we access the lower level, the door is fused.

“Follow me,” Toormis said racing back outside and
around the left of the complex to a solid rock wall. The door is just here,” he
pointed. A camouflaged area was just visible in the solid rock, “I saw this in
the flight logs of the Emperor’s ship. “Administrator please
use
some of your magic.”

The Administrator stepped forward and scanned it with
his arm console and in a matter of moments he had the code inputted into the
locking mechanism. The single man door flung open. The four of them rushed in
to get out of the perpetual cold.

Peter entered the hanger and was impressed how it was
carved out of solid rock. He felt the relief of the others that the lower level
was untouched by the raiders. He saw Toormis, Cassy and the Administrator
disappear into the large ship and walked over to follow them inside.

“She’s fine,” Toormis said with relief as he studied
the self checking sequences running across all the Bridge monitors and other
ship sensors.

“I suggest we leave this place immediately,” Peter
said casually.

“Yes of course,” the Administrator answered and
noticed Peter looked introverted, “what is it Peter?”

Peter looked around the Bridge and lower deck. He
walked over to a control panel and to everyone’s surprise watched his fingers
dance on the keypad. Images flashed across the navigational monitors and
Toormis transferred the images to the main screen.

“What is it?” Cassy asked looking at a sector space
chart aligning to give a radiating image with Zion at its centre. The
Administrator stepped forward to get a closer look at the dots and coloured
markers as they arranged themselves in ever changing patterns. The patterns
solidified and Toormis gasped.