Ships of Valor 1: Persona Non Grata (12 page)

The sloop was only slightly less cramped than my previous time. Although I wasn’t kitted up, we had jammed up what little space was available with the best communications gear available.
Heart
was going to stay as deep as he could in the Kermadec to minimize his chances of being spotted while getting as close to New Zealand as possible. We had slowly decreased our depth until we could use Terra networks. A risky but calculated move. We hoped a single random user couldn’t be spotted. The alternative to leaving the trench was locating one of the older sea-based cables and attempting to tap into them, but
Heart
estimated we would be spotted far more easily, both physically and electronically.

Our theory was the sloop’s upgraded system would be able to relay
Heart
to me. There might be the tiniest of lag due to punching a signal through salt water, but it was far better than not having him at all. I had grown accustomed to his presence and losing him at that juncture would have left me crippled.

Without an environmental suit, being outside
Heart’s
skin at our previous depth was dangerous. The previous jaunt in the sloop was only possible because of many precautions, limited time, and pure necessity. So we had to bring
Heart
and the sloop up to a much safer depth. The Kermadec was over ten kilometers at its deepest. Our hover point was closer to three-k. The sloop would take me down to five-hundred meters without real issue, even without a suit, but there was a question of whether
Heart
would become visible at that point.

The other issue was the sloop wasn’t designed to scrub air. Sure, it could seal and be used in space or the ocean because of its shields, but it only had a limited supply of breathable Oxygen. We could stay below water for about three hours before having to surface. A suit would fix that, but would add other complications when I reached my destination. So we were relying on a fine balance of getting high enough in the water to where the pressure was safe, and then staying under as long as possible as well. Salt water was our friend when it came to stealth, but our enemy when coming to safety. We were teetering elements of risk, trying to find a perfect level.

Heart
and I followed the trench as far south as possible while getting as close as possible to the eastern coast of New Zealand. After surfacing, the sloop’s speed would make travel to the north island fairly simple. New Zealand didn’t have nearly the same population as our original destination near Perth on Oceana, but making landfall would give us lots of other options. It became a quantity versus quality argument. 

When we began moving again, we had shifted back to where our internal gravity matched Terra’s. A normal submarine would use buoyancy mechanics to maintain position, whereas
Heart
was using his angrav drives instead. He could maneuver however he pleased and not worry about how Terran gravity would affect me. As we ascended, it became simpler to match everything up. Dealing with reversed directions wasn’t difficult for him, but it was downright disconcerting for me as I had to consciously think about it.

Because the sloop didn’t have rear directionals and we weren’t sure how its sublights would respond in the water we decided to try a parabolic exit from
Heart’s
loading bay. In theory, the exit would be simple. He would ascend to about fifty meters, do an aileron roll, open his bay for me to pop out of the bottom, and then he would dive back down to the safety of the depths. Since he would only be at that depth for a few seconds, our risk of detection should be minimal. The sloop itself was insignificant in comparison, and the goal was to beeline to shore as soon as I surfaced.

  Given enough time, we could have linked the control, navigation, and communication systems together but would have required going well outside my area of knowledge. The sloop was a pet project to
Heart
but never intended for actual flight by anyone else. Much like the model planes I built when I was a kid. Time was our enemy and the sloop was the best option. We could have spent the next month upgrading the sloop so
Heart
had the ability to control it remotely and taken most of the stress off me, but doing so would have also taken away a lot of the fun.

I could feel my ears pop right as I broke the water. I was still heading in an upward path when I toggled on the propulsors and got my bearings. Hovering over water was a hell of a lot different than land, or even trying to maintain buoyancy. Because the angrav pads repel against mass and the ocean was constantly swelling, I was bouncing quite a bit. I dialed up the power to compensate and heard
Heart
chime in through my dampers “Ari, additional speed should provide greater stability.” I let him know I was working on it and eased into the throttle. I was still a bit gun-shy from the first run, but my trepidation quickly faded as instinct took over and the sloop responded to my directions. 

I was amazed how fast this beauty could move. In space, everything is about acceleration because of the distances. On land and in the water a ship can only go so fast because of drag but in the air with actual visual references, I could feel the speed. The human brain can only process information so fast before vertigo and motion sickness kick in. I have decent reflexes and my ware helped when it came to flying, but this was new and fun. All my previous flying revolved around sims or big ships like
Heart
. He was massive compared to this little two-seater. It wasn’t that he couldn’t go as fast, he absolutely could. We had during our run from the missiles. It was that it felt completely different to do so in something this small.

Skimming across the water at speed was a joy, but if my previous flight through Terran atmosphere had taught me anything, the lesson was to make my flight as short as possible. I wanted to play with the sloop, but the idea of anonymous missiles with my name on them was unpleasant enough to keep me focused on getting ashore quickly. I probably could have made the distance in half the time, but going so fast would have drawn some attention. After my initial burst of speed, I dialed it back to something closer to hopper speed, under the speed of sound. That got me from
Heart’s
hiding spot to coast in under ten minutes.

Once over land, I slowed down to a crawl considering the speed I had available. I can definitely see how racing would get addicting, and I was glad I hadn’t done it before joining the Legion. I would have gotten myself killed. It’s a scary realization warfighting is a safer profession than piloting even before removing people trying to do me harm from the latter.

This was my first visit to this part of the world, so I wasn’t exactly sure what I expected, but what I found was far more rural than I was used to. I’m from the Northern Reaches which is sparse to the point of empty compared to the rest of the Americas. Many folks consider it a frozen wasteland. It’s not that we don’t have cities, they’re just large and spread out, with lots of space and a little nature left. Having been down south to the megacities like Seattle on day trips, there was no comparison. This was like stepping back in time.

I thought Alaska was backwater. New Zealand was insane in comparison. I’m sure the impression was based on was my flight path more than anything, but if not for the farms I would have guessed the place had been abandoned years prior. I voiced my concerns to
Heart
and asked if this was normal. “Keeping in mind we do not have reliable data for the last couple of years, it appears the population should be approximately ten million over the entire state.” I told him that seemed really low considering Luna’s population, and the fact Fairbanks, where I called home, had well over double that. “That matches my records as well. The population growth has been very light, but the island is primarily an agricultural zone, so not uncommon. This may work to our advantage.” I told him I wasn’t sure how a lack of people and an abundance of sheep were going to help hide the sloop but to please enlighten me. “Ari, if you make your way northward you will come to a road, you should be able to follow to Auckland or Wellington. There are several other population centers along the way, and while you are traveling I will attempt to infiltrate the local networks.”

He was right of course. We weren’t sure where on the North Island I would come out on so we had left the destination city open. I was currently about midway between them making them both viable options. Auckland was triple the population but Wellington was the capital. They both had advantages and disadvantages. More people made blending in easier, increasing the risk of someone realizing I was a foreigner. The capital would have significantly more police, and with fewer people probably harder to get out of. They were roughly equidistant from Australia so location to the mainland wasn’t an issue, however if I had to bolt off the island westward I would probably be better off diving for the Puysegur Trench and letting
Heart
come pick me up.

Using that logic, I decided to go north to Auckland. If I was going to have to dive back in the drink again, I wanted
Heart
on the right side of the map for me. Running north would put me back in the Kermadec and we’d scoot back to Luna.

After a certain size, almost all cities look alike. I was surprised how much Auckland looked like Fairbanks, which looked like Handrelt on Janel 4, which looked like Ganymede. I imagined Luna City would probably look a lot like this if we could take the domes off as well. Lots of stone and glass and people. These were my thoughts as I attempted to navigate all the hoppers flitting about as I entered the outskirts of the city. I’d hate to see what traffic was like as I got towards the center.

The sheer volume of traffic was nice in one way. The sloop was inconspicuous because of the abundance of other vehicles. Back home it would have stood out, but that was more a product of the sport than anything. In Auckland, there were so many industrial hoppers also using large rear propulsor drives, my little vehicle blended in.

Eventually, I got close enough to the city proper I shifted to ground level to get a better feel for the area. Heart had managed to tap into the civil infrastructure and was able to direct me to an older industrial complex. “It will be unit 230 on your right. I have already settled payment and this should be safe enough for at least the evening.” I saw the unit and pulled in as the rolling bay door opened.

I asked about the payment part since we had been worried about interacting with local systems. “I used a shell corporation Master Dixon left to me. The accounts are completely Terra based and should be impossible trace back to our operation.” That surprised me. I voiced my thoughts about not expecting old man Dixon to leave
Heart
anything. “He anticipated a time when I might need to be on Earth, as he called it, and he wanted to make sure I had means. The company had no assets in itself, only a name and an account number I have funneled a small portion of my salary into since then.” Sounded like grandpa was sneaky and paranoid, I told
Heart
. “You have no idea, Ari. However, reviewing much of his records, he was well justified. I believe the saying is ‘you’re not paranoid if they’re really out to get you.’ His rivals had reached the point where they were willing to use force. Master Dixon was not averse to it, however, he preferred less direct methods of dealing with unruly competition, as he called them.”

The bay doors closed behind me, and the overhead lights began to power on. The building was a large empty warehouse about ten meters wide by twenty meters deep by ten tall. Off to one side appeared to be an office space and a refresher room. I could see the bolt holes where racking had previously been and on the far wall was a charging dock.

I set the sloop down and shifted its reactors into standby mode. I was disengaging the canopy when I heard a thump on the front hood and nearly knocked myself unconscious jumping into it. “Ari, I cannot employ countermeasures. The controls are located center console.” I was reaching for a large red button on autopilot when I stopped dead, staring at what appeared to be a cat. No, definitely a cat. I had almost fried the poor thing because of our combined paranoia.

It sat down on the front bonnet and looked back at me, equally curious. “Ari, why is there a feline on the sloop?” Make that three of us. I told him the hood was probably warmer than the floor. Or the cat was letting us know who the boss was. “But what is it doing here?” That question got a genuine laugh from me, as I explained cats go where they want, and we were probably in its home.

I popped the canopy while the tabby kept looking. It was fearless, I’ll give it that. Probably also had a keen sense of how far away I was and how fast the average person could move. I wasn’t a threat to it, so it wasn’t going to give me the satisfaction.

I hopped out of the sloop and onto firm ground. Of all the places I had ever been in the last few decades, nowhere had felt like this rundown warehouse. Took me a moment to realize why, but I was no longer tensed up. On higrav worlds, I had to use my strength to counteract gravity. In low-g places, I was fighting my own abilities. But on Terra, I didn’t have to do that. I was able to actually relax all my muscles the way they were designed to be. The tension bled away. I hadn’t noticed it earlier because of flight from
Heart
to the city and the uneasiness while traveling in the open.

I was back in the singular place in the galaxy where I could be me. “Ari, is everything alright? You just had a major endorphin spike, but I am not seeing a cause.” I let him know I was fine. More than fine even. Time to get this mission going. We had work to do and I was finally in the right frame of mind to do it.