Take The Star Road (The Maxwell Saga) (26 page)

"Command to Engineering, I'm aware of that, but you should have recorded the charging discrepancy in the exception log. I shouldn't have had to ask you about it."

"Engineering to Command, sorry about that, Sir. It won't happen again."

Steve mentally winced for the engineering tech. A rebuke like that would be automatically logged in the Captain's journal, and the Engineering Officer would see it along with all the other Heads of Department when he signed the journal each week. The tech responsible for the slip-up was going to be in for a severe chewing-out when he did.

"Very good. Break. Pilot, you gave me an energy level of 42.7% for our final hyper-jump. Was that based on a full capacitor ring charge, or our current level?"

"Current level, Sir."

"Very well. In future, if you see that the capacitor ring charge is at less than 100%, please notify me that the energy level you've calculated takes that into account. That way I don't have to ask unnecessary questions."

"Aye aye, Sir."

"Anything else I should know about?"

"Nothing from Navigation, Sir."

"Nothing from Communications, Sir."

"Nothing from the Plot, Sir."

"Very well."

Captain Volschenk issued the usual fifteen-minute warning, and the crew began the now-familiar routine of preparing for the next hyper-jump, the last of this journey. A quarter of an hour later, Steve felt a jolt in the pit of his stomach as
Cabot
was thrust through half a light year of empty space in the blink of an eye.

After a brief pause and a thorough scan of the Plot and his instruments, Feeny announced, "Sir, we've arrived at our planned position on Rosalva's system boundary. A navigation beacon has been detected, bearing from ship's head 007:019. Emissions match those published in the
Interstellar Pilot
for Rosalva's assembly beacon for arriving traffic. Three gravitic drive emission sources detected on the same bearing. Preliminary classification is one small patrol vessel and two merchant freighters. Recommend heading for the beacon at low power, Sir."

"Very well, Pilot, make it so. Communications, make the usual arrival signal to System Control, repeated for information to the vessels at the beacon."

Feeny passed the beacon's co-ordinates from the ship's sensor suite to the astrogation computers. Steve knew that gyros would be precessing as he did so. Slowly the ship's heading began to change in the horizontal and vertical planes as it took up its new course.

Volschenk took off his headset, unclipped his harness and stood. "You're currently Officer of the Deck, right, Pilot?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Very well. I'll be in my office. Call me fifteen minutes before we make rendezvous, or earlier if anything requires my attention, particularly any signal from that patrol vessel. You have the conn."

"Aye aye, Sir. I have the conn."

The Captain left the bridge, striding briskly down the passage. Steve knew he'd be checking their manifest one more time against the First Mate's offloading plan, and preparing for all the mundane details of their arrival at yet another destination. He suddenly realized that this would be the thirteenth planet he'd visited since joining the ship, and couldn't help thinking to himself,
I hope it isn't unlucky thirteen for me!
He shook his head at his silliness.
Don't be dumb! There's no such thing as 'unlucky thirteen'! That's an old wives' tale!

The next hour and a half were occupied with a leisurely approach to the navigation beacon.
Cabot
ambled along at a leisurely pace - so leisurely that Steve was puzzled.

"Why are we heading towards the rendezvous so slowly, Sir?" he asked.

Feeny smiled. "Remember, our rate and duration of acceleration has to be matched by our rate and duration of deceleration. If we go rushing over there at full throttle, we'd have to turn the ship when we were halfway there and decelerate at the same energy level, in order to arrive there at rest. That puts extra stress on our drive and power plant for no good reason. It makes more sense to cruise over slowly, without storing up kinetic energy that we'll just have to bleed off again. If we had to be there by a certain time, that would be different; but we don't."

"Oh. I see."

"Those two merchies probably - wait a minute, what the hell's going on?"

Feeny's voice rose to a shout as he stared at the three-dimensional Plot display. The smaller of the merchant ship icons was suddenly highlighted by a spray of smaller dots moving away from her at very high acceleration, headed towards the patrol craft. They were followed more slowly by four larger icons. Two of them headed for the second merchant ship, and two started towards
Cabot
.

Feeny lunged for the command console, flipped up a cover and held down a button. Alarm klaxons resounded throughout the ship as he reached for the microphone. "Emergency stations!
Emergency stations!
Captain to the bridge on the double!"

"W - what's going on, Sir?" Steve gasped, dumbfounded.

"Those are missile launches!" Feeny snapped as he twisted around. "That merchie's not a merchie at all. I'm betting she's a pirate! She must have approached the rendezvous all sweet and innocent, as if she had a cargo to deliver to Rosalva, then decided to wait until other ships arrived before launching her attack, to get richer pickings." Even as he spoke, he was entering commands into the navigation computer. Obediently
Cabot
swung away from the rendezvous, now only a short distance ahead, and began to pick up speed as the drive went to full power.

Captain Volschenk burst into the bridge. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"I think we've run into pirates, Sir," Feeny said, pointing at the plot. "Looks like missile launches, followed by boarding parties."

Volschenk cursed bitterly as he ran to his console. "You're right. That patrol craft hasn't even moved yet! With reactions that slow, they're dead meat."

As they watched the plot display, the spray of small dots narrowed, concentrating as it approached the patrol craft's icon. Suddenly the plot showed small sunburst traces, and the tiny dots and the patrol craft disappeared from the display with shocking abruptness.

"W - what were those, Sir?" Steve asked.

"Warheads exploding," Feeny replied absently as he continued to enter commands. "The patrol craft's been blown out of space. There are no lifeboat or suit beacons, so there probably aren't any survivors."

The Communication desk suddenly advised, "We're receiving a tight-beam signal from the direction of the rendezvous on the international distress frequency, Sir."

"Put it over the speakers!" Volschenk demanded.

The operator at the console pressed a button.

" - stop at once! I say again, this is Johann de Bouff. I've wiped out that damn patrol boat, and both of you merchies are now my prisoners. Don't try anything stupid, or I'll kill every one of your crews - slowly! I've got the legs of you in my ship, so you can't escape, and you're both within missile range. Don't take to your lifeboats, or I'll blow them out of space! Two of my cutters will board each of you. Resist, and you're dead! Surrender, and you'll be ransomed. Acknowledge! I say again - "

"Shut the bloody thing off!"
Volschenk snarled. Obediently, the Communications rating silenced the broadcast.

"There's not a damn thing we can do about it," Volschenk said bitterly. "He's too close, and we're moving too slowly. He'll be faster than us, because he's bound to have installed a more powerful drive in his ship. He -
wait a minute!
Did he say he was
de Bouff?"

"Yes, Sir," Feeny said.

"Oh,
shit!"
Volschenk looked desperately around the bridge, and his eye fell on Steve. "Maxwell! I've got a very urgent job for you."

He grabbed Steve's arm as he hurried over and dragged him to the bridge door, bending close to speak softly in his ear. "Listen carefully. Bosun Cardle overheard something in a spacer's bar some years ago, and passed it on to the authorities. It led to the arrest and conviction on piracy charges of Johann de Bouff's eldest son, Jan. He and his crew will be breaking rocks on a prison planet for the rest of their lives. De Bouff senior swore he'd find and kill the Bosun for that. When he learns he's aboard
Cabot
, he's as good as dead meat.

"The Bosun will be at his emergency station, which is the Damage Control console outside Hold Four. I daren't broadcast a message to him, or use radio, because all internal traffic's recorded. If de Bouff finds out I warned him, he'll kill me too. I want you to run like the Devil was at your heels! Tell the Bosun what I've just told you. He's to hide somewhere -
anywhere!
I'll do my best to conceal his presence as long as I can, but once they examine our crew roster they'll know he's here, and they'll come looking for him." He pushed Steve hard out the door.
"Why are you still here? GO!"

Steve raced down the passage, heart pounding in his chest as he looked frantically for the stairs leading down to the vestibule of Hold Four. He hurtled down them, and found the Bosun at the desk. Tomkins was with him. They looked up as they heard Steve coming.

"What are you doing here, Maxwell?" Cardle snapped. "Why aren't you at your station?"

"Message from the Captain!" Steve hurriedly relayed Volschenk's message as he gasped for breath, and their faces turned pale. "You've got to hide,
fast!"

The Bosun swore violently. "They're sure to find me, dammit! They're spacers too. If they know I'm aboard, they'll rip the ship apart searching for me."

"Not if they think you're dead!" Steve blurted out. The other two stared at him wide-eyed.

"What do you mean?"

"Jettison a lifeboat! They've warned us not to do that. De Bouff said he'll blow out of space any boats that try to escape. Let him do that, then have the Captain tell him you were aboard it. If they think you died when they destroyed it, they won't look for you."

"He's got it!" Tomkins enthused. "Bosun, hide in a cargo shuttle. Engineering's just brought them online, and fully charged all their systems. They carry a week's emergency rations for a crew of four. They've got spacesuits, independent life support systems, and full toolkits - those might come in real handy."

"Yes," Steve agreed, "and what's more, I'm coming with you!"

Cardle snapped, "Don't be a damn fool, Maxwell! I'll not have you risk your life along with me! Let them take you prisoner. The Merchant Spacers League will ransom you."

"Like hell! You might need to get away from the ship, and I can fly a shuttle if I have to. Their piloting systems aren't much different from a cutter's - it's just a much bigger craft. Besides, you always said two heads were better than one!"

"He's right!" Tomkins agreed. "You
need
Maxwell. I'll stay here as senior Bosun's Mate to act in your place. We can tell de Bouff that both of you were aboard the lifeboat, so Maxwell won't be missed either. All our lives are at risk, anyway - de Bouff's slaughtered crews before, and you know it. That's what earned his eldest son life on a prison rock, remember? The only reason they didn't execute him was that they couldn't prove he'd personally ordered the murder of prisoners, or killed any himself. I'll tell the skipper what you're doing. Launch Lifeboat Nine, near the stern behind the docking bay. It's only a short run from there to the cargo shuttles. I'll tell the Cap'n to watch through the security systems and lock them from the bridge once you're inside. Find someplace to hide once you're aboard."

"All right. There's no time to argue anyway!" The Bosun held out his hand to Tomkins. "Look after my spacers."

Tomkins shook it, then Steve's. "Good luck, both of you. Now let's get moving before their boarding party arrives!"

They rushed up the stairs to the main passage. Tomkins turned forward towards the bridge, while Steve and the Bosun headed aft towards the docking bay. Steve turned towards the stairwell leading to the lower docking bay where the cargo shuttles were docked, but the Bosun ran past him. "Open a shuttle and wait for me!" he called over his shoulder. "I'm going to release Lifeboat Nine!"

"I'll grab some of the emergency supplies from Shuttle Two and take them to Shuttle One. I'll meet you there."

Steve burst through Shuttle Two's airlock and headed for the emergency locker in the bulkhead beyond it. He wrenched it open, hauled out a bulky container of emergency rations and two boxes of one-liter water canisters, and slammed the door closed again. As he did so he felt a deep
thump!
shake the shuttle. He realized at once that the Bosun had activated the lifeboat's ejection systems from its external control panel. He'd just felt robotic arms thrusting the small craft clear of the side. It would now be drifting away from the ship's stern, broadcasting its location on an emergency frequency, automatically powering up its micro-reactor. The pirates were sure to pick up both its beacon and its gravitic drive emissions.

He grabbed an emergency toolkit from the rack, then dragged everything back through the airlock and over to the other shuttle. The Bosun was waiting at the airlock.