Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance (9 page)

“I don’t think you’ll be getting any rest any time soon.” Bren told me as I heard Tanya’s fingers flying over her keypad.

“That’s two things you got right.” Tanya said as her system checked out. She hadn’t really been going to cycle Bren out the lock but it had been an amusing interlude to a boring afternoon for which Bren had made her pay dearly after- by disabling her weapon with enemies behind them- and nearly precipitating her into the real act of cycling him out the lock- except without his spacesuit. “Let’s see if we can shoot for three.” She added as she implemented a security protocol over the cannon’s fire-control system that would eliminate Bren’s future interference- but she was
talking
about the coordinates for the Alartaw world.

“What are you inputting?” Bren demanded.

“What
did
I input?” Tanya said as she finished and pressed enter, the program ready to go and just needing the access Bren had just given her. “Permission to cycle you out the lock should I choose.”

“I don’t like having the cannon turned off anyway.” I told Bren. It was clear what Tanya was doing the moment she started. Never underestimate Tanya’s technical abilities either, I reminded myself, just in case one day she really does flush Bren out the lock, because she’d be taking his place at the engineering station.

“Now that I’ve had a nice rest without having to think about what the rest of you are getting me into,” I said, “what are you getting me into?”

“Detecting strange gravity anomalies ahead!” Bren cut me off.

“Black hole!” I said aloud as I saw the slight curvature of the warp-tunnel ahead of us. Then Last Chance began shrieking her warning. Some things didn’t require sophisticated technology to detect however and I shut off the alarm. “Dump now or ride it out?” I asked calmly as we had a few minutes yet before we would
have
to decide. The warp-tunnel we were traveling through would not dump us into the black hole. If the warp-tunnel existed it meant it had another end. In other words it kept its coherency and was not affected by the black hole as it traveled around it, but if
we
stayed in warp and continued on past the event it did not mean that because the black hole maintained its coherency that we would. It was theorized that if the warp-tunnel passed too close to the black hole the stresses would be too much for the ship to withstand and we would be torn to shreds and then ejected from the warp tunnel into the maw of the black hole itself.

“Now’s your chance to be that crash-dummy.” Tanya said, her blue orbs flinty and her face hard. Tanya knew me too well.

Chapter 20

“The odds not quite what you thought they were going to be?” I asked.

“This
was
an Alartaw world.” Tanya said. “I may have been hoping for a little help.”

“I wish you could be this honest all the time.” I told her with a remorseless smile.

“This is a big one.” Bren said. “There’s no way we’ll...”

“Do you think the Katons will follow us?” Tanya asked me conversationally in the middle of Bren’s sentence and shutting him off in mid-sentence as he realized we had already made a tacit agreement.

“Tanya and I vote to ride out the warp-tunnel.” I said over com. “Bren votes to drop out and fight the twenty Katon Destroyers now.”

“That’s not what I said.” Bren said.

“You have fifteen seconds to make your decision.” I added. “If we have to fight the Katons I don’t want to have to do it next to the black hole itself.”

“We vote to ride it out.” Manuel said thirty seconds later. “Melanie votes to fight it out now.”

“I’d get buckled in boys and girls.” I said. Then to Tanya; “I believe they will.”

“We’ll never know.” Bren said. “We’ll be dead.”

“If those Katons follow us they’ll be dead.” I said. Those Katon Destroyers massed many times Last Chance and the stresses would be many times what we felt. On top of that add the cost-cutting nature of Katon military spending and I was fairly sure those ships would come apart at the seams at the apex of this ride. I hadn’t made this decision based on feelings alone and Last Chance had been designed and built for a person who didn’t want to have to worry about such things and who’d had the Credits to pay for it. There was no question this was going to be a bumpy ride however. I had never warped past a black hole showing this much curvature in the warp-tunnel yet this far out from the event itself, but I
thought
I had ridden several nearly as bad as this one. This would definitely be the closest I would ever come to a black hole. I said seriously; “This
is
going to be a bad one.”

“You could have mentioned that to the others.” Bren accused.

“Just came to me.” I said as we began to notice the steepening curvature of the warp-tunnel. “I’d say we’re just about committed however. Those Katons still behind us?” This I asked Bren because Tanya was buckled into her gunner’s seat and I doubted there was any power in the Universe which could remove her from it at that moment. I knew she’d ridden down the same dangerous warp tunnels I had because she’d ridden them with me, so I knew she knew how bad this one was going to be.

“Still there.” Bren said with something akin to awe. “They’re in trouble.”

We were in a lot of trouble, I thought though I didn’t say it aloud, and I wasn’t talking about the black hole warp-tunnel though that was plenty trouble enough. I was talking about the black hole where an Alartaw base was supposed to be hidden. Truth-be-told I had been fairly certain up until this point that Tanya would find these Alartaw and with their returning memories be able to convince them to take us in, but now I wasn’t so sure. Their beacon had brought no response other than the Kievor and now a black hole where we had expected to find hidden Alartaw. I began to wonder if the Alartaw were entirely annihilated and if so what that would mean for us in a Universe where we couldn’t turn around without running into a Kievor Trade Station. In a Universe where there was nowhere to hide.

Of more pressing concern at the moment however was the increasing velocity of Last Chance as the black hole began to change the physics of the warp-tunnel and increase our velocity despite the physical laws which forbade it- warp velocity was supposed to be constant- but like all laws I had been made to break them. That old conundrum about how if
E=mc^2 means that the speed of light is the fastest possible velocity then how was it possible that black holes could swallow all the light around them. By the same means they were going to accelerate us to an unknown velocity and then slingshot us down the warp-tunnel when we reached the black hole’s point of strongest attraction. Whether we would be slingshotted along on our way or torn to shreds under the pressures at the apex was the question which had yet to be answered.

“I seriously don’t think we’re going to make it.” I said.

“Why don’t we just warp down the black hole? Tanya says it works.” Bren said. “You took her there before. She said it was a fun ride.”

“What’s he talking about?” I asked.

“Just one of your many exploits as an Alartaw.” Tanya replied. “It does work, but I wouldn’t recommend it- unless you
like
crash landing on lizard worlds. There’s no telling where we’ll come out.” I didn’t bother trying to figure it out. I was watching our velocity as relevant to the sides of the warp-tunnel, sure I had never seen them blurred to such an extent, and we were only three-quarters way to the event.

“Warp down a black hole?” I asked Tanya. She did not reply.

Chapter 21

“I begin to gather such doubts myself.” Tanya said moments later as the velocity continued to mount and knowing it would be double what it was
now when we hit the apex.

“You are not saying what I think you’re saying.” Bren said.

“I think I
am
saying that when we hit that apex we are finished.” I said. “Got any other bright ideas?”

“No.” Bren said reluctantly.

“Somehow I didn’t think so.” Tanya said.

“We’re moving pretty fast.” Melanie said over com.

“Tanya tells me I warped down a black hole before.” I replied. To my reply I received no response though I could imagine their consternation. I doubted however that they questioned my intention. This warp-tunnel was going to take us far too close to the black hole and no longer any confusion about that. It would be a one-way ride for the Katon Destroyers behind us and it was almost enough to give me a twinge of guilt, but not quite. Maybe they would learn their lesson this time, but somehow I doubted it. I turned to Tanya; “When’s the best time to do this?” I asked.

“Why you asking me?” Tanya asked. “I’m not the Science Engineer.”

“I would drop out of warp
before
we get to the apex.” Bren said without having to be asked, which probably had a lot to do with the fact that we were within minutes of that occurrence.

“Thanks.” I said, not that I had been expecting more. I was just dragging it out until the bitter end, which was my wont when doing things I was fairly certain weren’t going to work out well. It was always long odds with Marc Deveroux, but I knew what would happen at the apex if I were foolish
enough to ride it out that far. Last Chance would come apart at the seams. We would lose thrust and then be dumped into the black hole- so to do nothing was beyond my ability. I would definitely be someone who screamed under torture if for nothing else just for something to do. I dropped us out of warp.

We
entered real space with quite a view and a very noticeable feeling of gravity interfering with environmental controls. The big fusion engine immediately found purchase however so I maneuvered us into an escape altitude and for a few high gee moments thought it might work.

“We
’re going backwards.” Bren said, though that in no way diminished the high gees we were feeling over internal-gravity.

“Quite rapidly.” Tanya added.
I couldn’t give her a look just at that moment, though I wanted to, because turning your head under high gees was a good way to get a crick in your neck that only a trip to a doc would cure.

“I
noticed.” I said. Just then the warp-entry alarm sounded and Katon ships started dropping out of warp all around us. I was already acting the moment the alarm sounded. I spun Last Chance on her keel and leapt into the eye of the storm as the space we had just occupied lit with the flashing photon beams of the attacking Katon Destroyers. With many times more than our normal acceleration we hit warp velocity almost instantly and directly we were gone.

A flash of light and we were ejected back into real-space, but where in real-space wasn’t the question of the hour. “How many of those Destroyers dropped out?” I asked. I knew it hadn’t been all of them, but
I hadn’t had the time to count.

“About eight.” Bren said.

“Seven.” Tanya corrected as I continued to accelerate Last Chance at full thrust, expecting Katon Destroyers any moment- all depending on how quickly they gathered their courage. They had seen Last Chance warp down the black hole and soon they would be following. They would have no other choice, but each ship would have to make its own decision. There were no known ways to communicate through warp and I doubted the Katons had invented one during my absence- nor would any normal means of communication work at such close proximity to the black hole. The Katons weren’t strong in original thinking was my opinion and I had to wonder how many of them were going to ride that warp-tunnel right into oblivion. A good many of them, was my guess. Halfway to warp velocity the warp-entry alarm began ringing its multiple entry alarm.

“There are over forty ships inbound.” Bren said suddenly just as space began to vomit ships all over my scan, and completely surrounding us, but only some of them were Katons. The staccato buzzing of inconsistent locks as I took evasive maneuvers told of Katon Destroyers targeting Last Chance and then suddenly with another flash of light, this time white/yellow staccato bursts, only some of them coming from Last Chance herself, the buzzing of the Katon photon locks were forever silenced.

“The Alartaw.” Tanya said. “It’s about time.”

Chapter 22

I would call it instantaneous though I’m sure there must have been some lag. I couldn’t detect it however as we were suddenly swallowed whole by an unseen ship. It moved far too rapidly to be tracked by Last Chance’s antiquated scan system and even if Last Chance had been able to catch a real-time scan that didn’t mean we would be able to see it. The ship moved far too quickly for human visual senses to follow it. We were in space and then we were in a dock made of trans-metal. If I had blinked I would have missed the transition. It was clearly obvious through the main screen visual feed as it came back alive because there was no other metal that held quite the same quality of appearance as trans-metal and not for the eightieth or even five hundredth time in my life wondered if I had jumped from the frying pan into the fire. We were in the belly of the beast and it would be up to that beast whether or not it wanted to digest us.

“Orders?” Tanya demanded. I was only surprised she hadn’t already fired, despite her desire to be reunited with the Alartaw.