Project Starfighter (38 page)

“Mal’s influence is still
growing,” Overlook continued. “And – and you’re to keep this
strictly off the record, Commander – I do not believe that the CEO
is taking the threat seriously enough. He could end up dooming us
all. Not for the first time, I have considered issuing a vote of no
confidence against Lance and his steering of our society.”

Overlook sucked at his cigarette. It
had gone out. He frowned at it, and then dropped what remained to the
floor, crushing it under his foot. “I will return to Earth and
report to the CEO. You are to go in search of Bainfield, immediately.
I will speak with you later.”

Overlook waited. Nothing happened.
He looked around himself, at his hands and then at Kethlan. “Am I
still here? Can you still see me?”

“Yes, sir,” Kethlan said.

Overlook stood silently for a time,
then walked over and tapped the back of a chair with his fingers. It
appeared solid to his touch. “Something has gone wrong again,” he
said.

Kethlan nodded. “Interference
between the source and the destination.”

Overlook gnashed his teeth. “I
will get the eggheads to take a look when I get back. Might be a few
hours.” He held out his hand, expecting something to appear in it.
Nothing did. “Can’t even get a damn drink. Going to be a
long
few hours,” he glowered. He sat down in the chair and began working
at the console there. “Get to work, Commander. I will wait here
until the issue with my transfer is fixed. Go. Now. I will speak to
you later.”

C
hris
woke, finding that Athena had gone. Had she slipped out from between
his arms, or had her avatar merely vanished? He couldn’t imagine
her walking if she didn’t need to. In visiting him during the
night, she had likely just materialised outside his door, rather than
travelling all the way up from the hold where the Firefly was stored.
She would have then faded out slowly as Chris slept, so that her
sudden lack of physical presence wouldn’t cause him to jolt awake.

He got up, washed, dressed, and made
his way to the freighter’s small dining area, where the former crew
would have eaten their meals. Phoebe was there already, looking
extremely tired.

“Morning,” he said to her.

“Morning,” she said, smiling
weakly.

“How are you feeling? Athena said
that you were at it until quite late.”

“Exhausted this morning,” Phoebe
agreed. “This is my third cup of coffee. I want to get straight
back, though.”

“Just don’t overdo it,” Chris
said. “We don’t know if there are any side effects to putting up
these barriers.”

“Oh, don’t worry, that’s
something I’m keeping a very close eye on.” Phoebe sniffed,
running a finger under her nostrils, and looking at it. “I got a
nosebleed last night, just before we stopped. The level of
concentration needed is immense. But I think Athena might have been
pushing me quite hard. She did say she might have gone a little too
far. Did you sleep okay?”

“I ... did,” Chris said. He
wasn’t sure if that was just a question, or if Phoebe had guessed
that Athena had visited him. Had Phoebe seen into Athena’s mind
while the two of them had battled for control over the drone?

“Where’s Sid” Chris asked,
looking around for him.

“I’m here,” Sid said, striding
quickly into the dining area. He was clutching a computer tablet and
looked a little frantic.

“Did you have any luck finding out
about the facility last night?” Chris asked.

“No, no,” Sid said, “but that
doesn’t matter.”

Phoebe gave Chris a look that asked
why rescuing Ursula was suddenly not so important. Chris was sure
that Sid didn’t quite mean it that way.

“Sid, what’s up?” Chris asked.

Sid showed him the tablet. “I’ve
detected a WEAPCO vessel not far from here. It’s suffering from a
power failure and appears to be stranded. I was in the middle of
organising some more upgrades to the Firefly and the Valkyrie when I
spotted it.”

“So ...?” Chris asked. He
assumed that Sid was getting at something, other than it might be
another ship that they could add to their small fleet.

“What makes this one special is
that it’s an Executive-class ship—” Sid started.

“Which means that it’s probably
transporting some VIPs,” Chris said, leaping to his feet, and
leaving the dining room. “Maybe we could use them as a bargaining
chip! How far to intercept?”

“We can hop there in fifteen
minutes,” Sid said.

“Good. I’ll launch as soon as
we’re there. Phoebe, I want you out there with me. I know you had a
tough day yesterday, but this could be the very thing we’ve been
looking for. We could find out everything we need to about where
Ursula is, as well as all the other mysteries surrounding WEAPCO.”

Phoebe nodded in agreement, set her
coffee down, and hurried with Chris to the cargo hold. The pair
suited up, and stepped up into their fighters.

You seem stressed
, Athena
said to Chris, as he put on the Firefly’s helmet.
Is this
because of the transport you detected?

“Yes,” Chris said, fingers
racing over the console in front of him, checking all the systems’
conditions and preparing to take control. He didn’t pause to
consider how Athena had guessed what the source of his urgency was.
She had obviously pieced it together from all the information
available to her. She did more or less control the
Dodger
,
after all.

“We need to get there before
WEAPCO decide to send in a repair vessel, or move those people onto
another ship,” Chris finished.

Are you expecting a lot of
opposition?

“I don’t know. There are a few
fighter units, but Phoebe will be able to take control of them. I
will be there to take on anything that’s stronger. I’m also
planning on blowing out the transport’s engines, so that it can’t
get away.”

He gripped the joystick hard,
feeling his heart racing. This was exactly the opportunity they had
been seeking! They had stumbled upon it by chance, and Chris was well
aware that it could slide out of his grasp just as quickly. He would
not waste it.

The
Dodger
completed its
intra-system hop a few minutes later, and Sid gave Chris and Phoebe
clearance to launch. Chris hit the accelerator the moment the cargo
hold doors were open.

~

The
transport wasn’t very big at all, only about four or five times the
size of the Manx. It was more like a passenger aircraft in size. The
arrival of the unidentified freighter and the two fighters racing
towards them caused the transport’s fighter escort to turn to meet
the potential threat immediately. Though Chris had never seen them
before, the fighters were quite familiar-looking.

Cyclones
, Athena said,
some
of the most powerful starfighters in WEAPCO’s navy.

“Is the Firefly based on them?”
Chris asked. They appeared to have cockpits, allowing for human
pilots. Neither the Talons or Mirages had room for seats.

No,
Athena said.
They are
based on the Firefly. They are technically a next generation Firefly;
a step up.

“So, they’re better than you?”
Chris couldn’t help but grin as he asked the question.

Yes and no
, Athena answered.
Yes, because they are more nimble, possess better armour and
shields, and have more capable power systems, enabling them to handle
more powerful weapons. No, because they are still AIs and are still
susceptible to takeovers by humans. See?

Chris shared Athena’s mild
amusement as he saw the Cyclones begin to slow, before holding
position. “That you, Phoebe?” he asked.

“That’s me,” Phoebe said. “I’m
going to put up the barriers, in case anyone tries to order them to
self-destruct.”

“I’m going to hit the
transport’s engines,” Chris said. “Stop them from escaping.”

“No need,” Phoebe said. “I’ve
crippled every available system, except for life support.”

Chris looked at the ship. It
appeared as dead in the water as it had been when the
Dodger
had arrived, so he would have to take Phoebe’s word for it. He
slowed the Firefly, sitting back in the seat. There was nothing for
him to do. The job was done. He had built himself up for a fight, for
a struggle that could well determine where they went from here. And
yet all that had happened was that Phoebe had applied her gift to
every machine in front of her, and they had become totally obedient.

A little anti-climatic, wasn’t
it?
Athena commented.

“Yeah, sorry about that, Chris,”
Phoebe said.

Chris chuckled. “Don’t worry
about it. Good work, Phoebe. Let’s get back to the
Dodger
and find a way to get aboard.”

“We can bring the
Dodger
forward to the transport and lock on it with docking clasps,” Sid
communicated. “That will let us enter from the
Dodger
itself. We can also pass control of the transport over to the
Dodger
’s AI, rather than burden Phoebe or Athena with it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Chris said.

He and Phoebe returned to the
Dodger
, where they passed control of the Cyclones to Athena.
Sid then joined Chris and Phoebe, and the three armed themselves in
preparation to board the transport.

“Ever fired a gun before?” Chris
asked Phoebe.

“No,” Phoebe said, looking over
the pistol a little uncertainly. “Maybe I should take control of
the drone and bring it with us?”

“So long as your tug-of-war with
Athena didn’t damage it too badly,” Chris said.

“You ... you should still learn
how to use a gun,” Sid said, coming over to Phoebe. “It’s quite
simple at the end of the day, and ... er ... you might find yourself
needing to do so in future.” He stood behind Phoebe, reaching
around her and taking her hands. “Hold it up like this, arms
straight.”

“Okay,” Phoebe said, allowing
him to continue with the demonstration without objection.

“Now, can ... can you see the two
small pins at the back? To aim, you need to line those up with the
small pin at the front ...”

Chris tried not to roll his eyes as
Sid stumbled and stuttered his way through his instruction. It amused
him how both Phoebe and Sid seemed willing, but also a little
embarrassed. How could they both be so shy around one another? Was
Ursula like this? he wondered. Or was she the polar opposite of her
sister?

After a time, Chris figured that the
awkward flirting had gone on for long enough and ushered them through
the freighter, along the short boarding tube connecting the executive
transport, and to the airlock.

“Computer,” Chris addressed the
Dodger
’s AI. “What can you tell us about the transport’s
occupants?”

“I am unable to detect any vital
signs, or other activity aboard,” the
Dodger
’s AI
responded.

“Perhaps something’s blocking
the scan,” Sid suggested. “It might be a defence mechanism built
into the life support?”

Chris nodded, considering the door
and what lay beyond it. “I can’t say for certain what we’re
going to find in there,” he told the other two, “but let’s just
assume the worst. Could be a load of drones and bots, as well as
people. If that’s the case, Phoebe you’re going to have to take
control of them. Sid and I will go first, so you’re not directly in
the line of fire. Just be quick, okay?” He took a moment to steel
himself. “Right, ready?” he asked.

“Ready,” Sid and Phoebe said.

“Computer, override and open the
airlock door.”

The lights of the exterior door
panel flashed for a moment, before one flipped from a pale orange to
a hard green. The two others next to it followed in quick succession,
and the door opened.

~

Chris
raised his gun the moment he stepped into the executive transport
vessel, swinging it all around, hearing himself breathing hard. He
had never done anything like this before in his life. The one and
only time he had entered an unfamiliar place with guns involved had
been when he had arrived at Sid’s flat. That felt like a lifetime
ago, now.

He braced himself for the robotic
female voices of the drones, warning everyone of his intrusion onto
the ship, and then their guns opening fire. No alarms or sounds of
gunfire came. Even so, Chris and Sid stalked only a little further
into the ship.

“See anything?” Chris whispered,
needing to repeat himself after the first words were lost to a croak
in his throat.

“Nothing,” Sid whispered back.
“Can you ... er ...
feel
anything, Phoebe? If you know what
I mean?”

“Only the ship,” Phoebe
whispered.

Chris forced himself not to relax.
He considered the scene before him. The interior of the transport was
a little like a conference room. There were high, comfortable seats,
a couple of low tables, and what appeared to be television screens or
monitors. There may have been other things, but the light level was
low, only the dim illumination present at floor level pushing back
the total darkness.

Chris beckoned the others forward,
and they each inched a little further into the ship, keeping a close
eye out for signs of movement. They crept along until they reached
the rear of the transport, before doubling back, checking the front,
and coming to the small cockpit area. Surely the ship’s occupants
must have sealed themselves in there? There was nowhere else to go.
The doors were unlocked, the three entered. There was no one inside.

Now Chris relaxed. “What the
hell?” he asked.

“Maybe the computer was right?”
Sid said. “Maybe it really is empty?”

“Perhaps whoever was aboard has
already gone?” Phoebe suggested.

“But what about the Cyclone
escorts?” Chris said. “This makes no sense.”