Smuggler's Dilemma (19 page)

We changed into armored vac-suits and strapped into our chairs - Marny and Nick at the two bridge stations and Ada and me in the pilot’s chairs. I felt a swell of pride when I thought about the crew and I couldn’t help saying something.

"I want you guys to know, I couldn’t be prouder than I am right now to be sailing with you all," I said over the comm channel.

"Aye," Marny replied. It meant a lot to me, coming from her as she’d seen more than her share of combat and was a decorated veteran of the Amazonian war.

I’d slowed our speed to nearly a crawl, working under the understanding that our ship’s largest signature was the engines.

"Are you seeing this, Cap?" Marny asked. The forward holo showed our ship approaching the asteroid which held my parent’s claim. A cutter popped onto the display, sailing directly at us. Its current trajectory would take it over us at less than a hundred meters distance.

Extinguish all light on bridge and cockpit
, I directed. We were already running in a low-light environment, but this shut down all of the holographic images and vid-screens. The likelihood of the glow being detected by a ship moving at forty meters a second was very low, but detection would be bad. I held my breath as the ship passed above us. It was a small cutter, one we wouldn’t have much trouble dealing with if we had to. I waited for a count of twenty before restoring our low-light configuration.

"Frak, that was close. Good catch, Marny. Was that a ship we’ve seen?" I asked.

"Aye, it’s one of the ten the AI detected."

"What do you think they’d do if we took it out?" I asked.

"They’d send a large group out to discover what happened. We should avoid that if we can," she said.

"That’s what I figured too," I said. "But, I have to say, that was almost too tempting."

"Provocative actions draw attention," she said.

Slowly we closed in on the asteroid that my parents had been living on for the last three years. Something was definitely off. There was no equipment to be seen anywhere. It wasn’t that it had been attacked and destroyed, rather, it just wasn’t there. Something else was off, but I couldn’t place it.

"That’s odd," I said.

"What?" Ada asked.

"The asteroid is barren. There should be a habitation dome, generator and an ore-sled or two," Nick answered for me. "Wait. Didn’t you guys dig your domes in? I’m not seeing where that was. Are you sure you have the right asteroid?"

"Dig in?" Marny asked.

"That’s it," I said with relief. "He got the message. There’s no reason they’d clean the asteroid off like this unless they’d gotten the message."

Outline where the habitation dome was originally located
. My AI had a perfect recall of how the asteroid had been laid out. My HUD showed a small swale where we’d originally dug into the asteroid to provide protection for our habitation dome.

"You see that, Nick?" I asked.

"Yup. There’d be no reason to push rock back into the hollow where your dome had been," Nick answered. I heard the excitement in his voice.

"Cap. There’s another cutter - another one from the original fleet. I bet they’re trying to find your family’s claim. There’s no other reason for two ships to pass this close." She was right. There were hundreds of thousands of asteroids of all sizes in the ten thousand kilometers that made up the colony. The odds of two ships, or one fifth of their cutters, being in the same area at the same time seemed pretty far out without another reason.

We were almost on top of the asteroid. If we stayed put, the pirate ship would pass just about as close as the other had. I blacked us out and nudged the
Hotspur
around so we weren’t on the same side of the asteroid.

"I’d like to EVA," I said. "I bet they’re dug in and holding those rocks in with a gravity generator. Otherwise why would the rocks be there?"

"They could be hiding the equipment," Nick said.

"We’ll never know if I don’t get a good look," I said.

"Yup, I’ll go with you," he said.

"That works. Ada and I can play patty cake with the cutters," Marny said. I wasn’t sure how good Ada would be in combat, but I had no doubt about her ship handling skills.

Nick and I picked up our blaster rifles, still hanging by the cargo bay, thanks to Marny. Somehow, in the excitement, Filbert had found his way down to the lower level and was sitting by the back door.

"I’m sorry, little man. You need to stay here." He complained and tried to wriggle free when I picked him up. I took the lift back to the bridge and placed him in the grav-box. We didn’t need the distraction.

Nick and I entered the cargo bay and exited through the airlock. We’d set the suits to communicate over a very low-power, line-of-site band. We couldn’t afford to have a ship pick up our location.

The asteroid had no discernable gravity, but we hugged the surface anyway, snaking our way back around to where the habitation dome had been. I saw tell-tale signs of our operation, but nothing that could be identified easily from a ship. Someone had done a masterful job of removing all evidence of a habitation.

"Take cover!" Nick’s voice exploded in my ear.

I lit the arc-jets on both my boots and gloves and jumped to the side. Something impacted my shoulder and since I wasn’t in contact with the asteroid, I spun over in an awkward barrel roll. I fought against the induced spin and dove down to the asteroid.

"I’m pinned down," Nick said.

"Are you hit?" I asked.

"No, but there’s fire coming from the swale," he said. I’d found a large boulder and was currently doing okay. But like Nick, I was pinned down by blaster fire. If it hadn’t been for my armored vac-suit I’d likely be dead.

"I think it’s your parents, Liam. They don’t know who we are," Nick said.

It made sense but I didn’t have any idea how to get in contact with them. If we transmitted over an open comm channel we’d attract even more attention than the blaster fire. I imagined Dad had decided we were part of the raiding party and was making his last stand.

"I’m going to have to go on open channel. Those cutters will definitely see the blaster fire," I said.

"Agreed. It’s a good chance they’ve already picked up on it."

Establish comm on Hoffen Channel One
. I assumed that my parents hadn’t kicked me out of our family’s comm channel.

"Mom. Dad. Stop shooting. I’m dropping the comm channel, there are hostiles nearby," I said.

Terminate all comms. Re-establish line of sight comm with Nick, Big Pete and Mom
.

The blaster fire immediately ceased. I hoped that it wasn’t a coincidence. I raised my hands over my head, illuminated my face within my helmet and slowly peeked around the crag which I was hiding behind.

"Liam?" Mom’s voice came over the comm. "What are you doing here?"

I doused my helmet’s light.

"There are pirate ships nearby. We could be in danger," I said. '’I had to transmit on a comm channel and they’re likely tracking those."

"Right, but we were blasting away at you and Nick. They’d see that just as soon," Big Pete said.

Blaster fire lanced across the ground where we’d been hiding just moments ago. Some ship, probably one of the cutters, had clearly locked onto our comm signal. Luckily, the ships were having a hard time distinguishing our suits from the rocky surface and would need to illuminate the area to find us.

"We gotta get out of here. Follow me. That fire came from the same direction as our ship. Make sure your arc-jets are aimed directly behind you. They won’t be able to pick that up," I said.

"Why aren’t they firing at your ship?" Big Pete asked.

"You’ll see. Let’s move and keep your jets to a minimum," I said. I popped my glove’s arc-jets in the direction of the
Hotspur
.

"We can hunker down. We’ve got cover," Mom said. Blaster fire continued to rip up the surface of the asteroid, but fortunately we were moving away from it.

"I wouldn’t count on that, Mrs. Hoffen," Nick warned. "We’ve seen two cutters buzz this asteroid in the last twenty minutes. They’re clearly looking for something."

We didn't have time for argument. "I need you to trust me right now. We have a ship, but we’re risking my crew by staying here."

"You want us to come with you?" Dad asked.

"Yes. Trust me, Dad," I said. "If you don’t like what you see, then you can come back."

"What’s your play here?" Big Pete asked.

"We came for you and Mom," I said. "These guys aren’t taking prisoners and they’re destroying everything they come into contact with. If you’re found, it will be bad for you and worse for Mom."

That got his attention. "You have a ship?"

"That’s what I said."

A second cutter pulled up alongside the first. It was creepy that they were within two hundred meters of the
Hotspur
but appeared to have absolutely no idea we were there. Bright spotlights shown down on the surface. Their ship’s AIs apparently were able to identify something that was off, as they started blasting away at the location where our home had been. It was heartbreaking, but the distraction was probably saving our lives.

"Nick, you and Mom go first. Dad and I will wait until you’ve cycled through the airlock," I said.

He didn’t respond other than to slowly glide to our ship, Mom following closely. It seemed like a lifetime as they cycled into the lock. I felt like the security panel of the lock was a flashing strobe when Nick touched it. Dad and I lifted off and reached the door just as it opened. Nick had thoughtfully evacuated the atmo and opened the lock behind him so that Dad and I could enter without waiting.

"Ada, we’re all on board. Can you get us out of here?"

"Happy to, Captain. I’ll have to take it slow, a third cutter just showed up. Crap, Liam. I think he saw us. Get up here!" I heard the panic in her voice and took off at a dead run.

HIDE 'N SEEK

"Shut down engines, full dark," I told her. Ada had the helm and would have to give the instructions. I jumped on to the lift and left my bewildered parents on the berth deck without any explanation. If not for my HUD projecting the outline of the bridge onto my eye I would have no doubt fallen on my face in my race to the cockpit.

Once I’d landed in the chair I saw what Ada was talking about. A brightly lit medium sized cutter was sailing directly at us. No doubt the cutter had caught our engines lighting up as we pushed away from the asteroid. If they knew exactly where we were, or what we were, there’d be a lot more activity than them just moving toward us. Without our engines running and with our light absorptive armor, however, they were simply moving toward what, for them, would have been a flash of light. I imagined the captain of the cutter replaying the video stream of whatever the sensors had caught.

"What do you have?"

Big Pete had found his way to the cockpit and was kneeling on the steps between the pilot’s chairs. He was still talking over the line of sight communications channel we’d established on the asteroid.

Add Pete and Silver Hoffen as bridge crew
. By adding them to the crew their AI would be able to show them what we were all seeing - which was a twenty-five meter long ship that we could crush in an instant, but that would alert the big boys to our presence.

"If I don’t move, they’ll run right into us," I said.

The AI showed the path the cutter was on and it would graze the belly of our ship if I didn’t adjust our position. I tapped the arc-jets ever so gently. Unlike our engines, the arc-jets were shielded with long cowls that blocked the visible light from escaping in all but the direction of thrust.

The
Hotspur
rolled gently out of the path of the oncoming cutter, which passed beneath us by no more than fifteen meters.

We sat quietly for five minutes when Big Pete finally broke the silence. "How is it they didn’t pick us up?"

"Ship's designed to run quiet, but we're not out of this yet," I said.

I pumped the arc-jets so that we moved away on a perpendicular path. The two cutters who had been focused on the surface turned, coming toward us and spreading out to form a wide noose. The AIs were just too intelligent and would be able to predict where we were going or at least how best to pen us in.

"Nick, can you help Mom and Big Pete find a place to strap in? This might get dicey. Marny, did they drop a comm disrupter?" I hadn't seen any updated comms, but we'd also been pretty busy.

"Aye, Cap," she replied.

"How far can those cutters communicate?"

"Line of sight, just like us," she answered.

Engage combat controls
, I directed.

"What are you doing, Liam," Dad asked.

"Keep comm clear, Dad," I said. I hoped he wouldn't challenge me on this. "And get strapped in. The grav generator is good, but this baby… aah frak! Incoming."

Disengage silent running
. I jammed the throttle stick forward and tipped the directional stick over to the port side at forty-five degrees.

"Liam, don't be crazy…" Big Pete started.

Lock out Big Pete from combat comm
, I commanded. On second thought I added,
allow him to monitor
.

The forward holo jumped to life and the cutters all swung around to orient on me. They were spaced less than three hundred meters apart and were acting like wolves who had picked up the scent of their prey. 'Careful what you wish for,' I thought, wryly. I spun around and accelerated madly between the first two that had been closest to the asteroid.

"Nick, track the third one. We can't afford to let any of them get away," I said.

"Taking fire, port side," Ada said.

I could hear the thrapping of blaster fire against the hull. Hide and seek had once again turned into a game of chicken. We might have been outmatched and outgunned in the entire combat arena, but right here, right now, we were the big boys on the block.

Before I saw anything, I heard the familiar burping sound of our three turrets. From the sound of it, Marny wasn't leaving anything to chance and was pouring a full stream of fire into both ships. Once we were within a hundred meters, I flipped the
Hotspur
over and accelerated in-line with their trajectory. I wanted to give Marny as much time as possible in the
Hotspur's
turret range.