“It takes a lot of flying to get all the experiences, or even most of them,” Gaylen said, as the glowing strands of the Other did their dance into a black infinity. “I’ve been doing this for about twenty years, and I still discover a few firsts.”
His eyes stayed on the strands for a couple of extra seconds, and for a moment he thought of that flight from Chukata Mog, and the otherworldly strangeness that had occurred.
“There are still surprises, things I don’t understand, and still some outrageous stories from the true veteran spaces that I’m not hearing for the first time.”
“And how many of them are actually true?” Herdis asked.
“Oh… maybe one in five, in a typical freelancer lounge,” he admitted with a smile. “But the thing is that I’ve experienced all the commonplace stuff. Enough that it’s long since become commonplace to me. But having someone in the cockpit who still has a sense of wonder… I appreciate it.”
“And I appreciate the view, so we’re both winning here, I suppose,” Herdis said.
“Yup.”
“You know, you just partly summed up the experience of parenthood,” she went on. “Once we got our first, and he got old enough to play… wow, the joy a human being can find through simply rolling a ball around. It does rub off.”
“Sure,” Gaylen said. “But we’re about the same age, so let’s abandon that before it gets weird.”
“As you wish, boss.”
“But unless I’m mistaken, you’re about to have your first-ever close encounter with a stellar corona.”
His instruments counted down to the lane emergence, and showed all the basic information about what to expect. He made one of the minute adjustments that were the reason a pilot had to stay seated all the way through a leap. Awaiting them was the star that some ancient scout had named Jenna 12-X.
“Cool,” Herdis said. “To, uh, use the wrong word. Will we be able to keep the window uncovered?”
“Yes. It’s strengthened against the level of radiation we’ll be experiencing. And so is the rest of the ship, of course. Jaquan knows what he’s doing.”
“And our eyesight?” she asked.
“It’ll be fine too,” he assured her. “The window adjusts shading as required. So you’ll be able to look at a star up close.”
“And you’re actually paying me to experience it,” Herdis mused.
“You know, you keep undermining your own arguments for a higher pay.”
“I guess I’ve given up.”
Jenna 12-X went from being information stored on the ship’s nav computer, and became actually detectable, at the rapidly-nearing leap exit. Solar radiation and placement of astronomical objects were all as predicted, and there were no fresh obstructions around the exit itself.
“No joking now,” he said, voice serious. “For a few seconds.”
She was seasoned enough to know this, but long-term survival as a space depended on never assuming with certain things. That was why his pinky flicked to manually darken the window, even though it was supposed to react automatically. He also gave the magnetic shielding one last look.
Herdis went back to being a professional, and kept her hands on the cannon controls. Gaylen continued the slowdown, guided by readouts and experience in equal measure, until the time came to put his hand on the stopper.
“About to exit leap,” he said into the intercom. “In three… two… one.”
He pulled the stopper back, and the Other winked out of existence with a quick flash. Replacing it was the almost incomprehensible vastness of a red giant star, and its output. Some of the radiation was made visible by the window’s protective systems, resulting in quite the light show.
“Wow,” Herdis said quietly, although she stayed focused.
Gaylen went through all the usual motions and checks. The ship was indeed holding up to the solar radiation, and all systems were doing fine. Four other leap-lanes entered/exited directly into the system, and one passed right through it. His intended one, for ideal speed of delivery, was a three-hour drift away.
“Jaquan?” Gaylens said into the engine room.
“All fine here,” his friend replied. “Engine’s warm, and all this radiation is going to heat it up more before we’re through, but it’s all within parameters.”
“Good.”
The Addax had come with decent sensors, but one of his and Jaquan’s first priorities had been to upgrade to good ones. That was why, after a bit of drifting, he got the early warning. There, just barely detectable between the Addax and the star, was a solid object where one shouldn’t be. It was about three times the mass of the Addax, and on an intercept course.
Starmaps warned of expected collisions between objects, and other events that would cause new debris. None had been expected here for about three hundred years. A particular brand of asshole would sometimes blast asteroids or comets with ship cannons just for fun, leaving new hazards floating around in space for unsuspecting ships, but this wasn’t it either. Not with such a perfect intercept course, and the object’s composition, coming into ever-clearer light in the face of the Addax’s sensors.
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This was a ship, drifting as cold as it could, pushed on by a momentary engine thrust.
“We have a ship drifting our way!” Gaylen said on the intercom. “Three times our size, starwards. Intercept in twenty minutes at current rate. Jaquan, how soon can we leap again?”
“Four minutes, at a minimum,” the engineer said back
“Hmm.”
There could sometimes be advantages to playing oblivious until just the right moment, but Gaylen felt they weren’t in attendance this day. A ship like that could carry quite a lot of firepower. He gave the rear thrusters a boost, launching the Addax forward much faster than before. The other ship, predictably, shifted course.
The Incoming light flared up, signalling a message. Gaylen doubted there was anything of worth on the other end, but did open.
It started with an unpleasant, buzzing whine; distortions caused by the solar radiation. Then, a few seconds in, the ship’s computer was able to decipher the words.
“Freighter!” a voice said, amidst more awful noises. “This is Chief Horruk, of War Clan Birok! Taker of skulls, taker of treasures! Stand, and be boarded, and we will settle for your cargo! Fight, and be fought, and feed the gods!”
Gaylen flicked the channel closed.
“And what do we know about pirates who board?” he asked Herdis.
“That they rarely settle for just cargo,” Herdis replied.
“That is correct.”
All the humour was gone from the woman, replaced by focused professionalism as she waited for her chance to shoot.
Keep calm and survive, Gaylen told himself. Keep calm and survive.
The pirate ship was coming into greater focus. It was the sort of bulky, boxy beast one typically saw flying out of Scorchspace, or Greater Warkana as its wretched locals insisted on. He recognised the chassis shape, but what was inside of it varied wildly, and so did the guns attached on the outside. Gaylen could faintly make out the silhouette of two batteries, and it almost surely had a nose gun as well.
“Plan, boss?” Herdis asked.
His mind was speeding through all the known factors, and considering the input of all the probable ones. Running was almost always smarter than fighting, and that went triple when you were outgunned and outarmoured. The Addax was probably a good deal faster than the pirates, but they might be sitting on a well-rested engine, and they would be in firing range before Gaylen could turn and head back the way they’d come… unless he sent the Addax off directly away from the star, and off into the empty spaces of the system.
It would turn this whole thing into an extended chase, as the two ships competed, possibly for days, to see whose engines lasted longer in the face of constant course-changes. It was a slow, nerve-wracking way to court death, and Gaylen had played that game twice before in his life.
This would have been different if Gaylen had spotted them sooner, but this was why pirates modified ships for minimal heat output, drifted cold, lurked behind asteroids and other space debris, or solar radiation. They were ambush predators.
“Jaquan,” Gaylen said to the engine room. “We’re doing a blind cooker. You know what to do.”
“I do.”
“And be ready to give me a two-second boost, on my signal.”
“Got it. Kiris, you handle the-”
Gaylen cut the connection, then started a gentle turn… towards the pirates. A readout on Herdis’s side of the cockpit counted down to effective range for the Addax’s defence cannon, and estimated worst case scenario for the pirates own weaponry.
“Here’s the plan, Herdis,” he said. “You hold your fire until we start the pass. Go for a thruster if you can, a gun if you can’t. Watch the way the ship moves, learn it, and be ready to fire blind.”
He closed the window panels, and the view switched fully to various readouts.
“This is going to be rather blind already,” she commented, in the face of all the radiation they were charging into.
“Just do your best. Because they will be doing that.”
They were now facing the star, and Gaylen started helixing, giving the pirates a moving target… but less so than the Addax was actually capable of. Why show an enemy one’s full capabilities?
The Scorchspacers didn’t take the bait. They kept up a straight line directly into the Addax’s path. And why wouldn’t they, when they had more fields of fire to choose from?
The countdown continued, measured in distance rather than time, as Gaylen continued to steer the Addax into slightly inconsistent loops. The ship’s original Mark III Tevlan Defence Cannon had been traded out for a Mark V, for a longer range, more reliability, and slightly more power.
Ninety seconds, the range countdown read.
Gaylen took in the way things were going, the steady direction of the pirate ship, and the very slight effect of the stellar winds on the Addax’s manoeuvring.
Eighty seconds, and they reached the worst-case scenario for the pirate guns. No shots came from the batteries. But at seventy seconds the laser hit.
There was no dodging light itself. Suddenly the systems were just warning of a beam of heat intense enough to be detected through the radiation. The strain on the shielding rose, measured in numbers and a very faint electronic hum coursing through the ship. But it held, as it usually did.
Gaylen shifted his flight pattern enough to get some relief from the beam; anything to take pressure off the shielding that was keeping them from cooking. The Addax had its own laser, for clearing debris and the like, but he held it in reserve.
Sixty seconds.
“Jaquan, you ready?”
“Ready.”
It was a needless question. But, just like the window and the magnetic shielding, some things were not to be taken for granted.
Fifty seconds.
The laser swept over the Addax a couple more times, adding to the growing strain on the magnetic shielding and the ship’s physical structure. A small, half-acknowledged readout made it clear that some amount of radiation was penetrating, although it wasn’t at dangerous levels yet.
Gaylen kept flying evasive, still within the limitations he’d set for himself, but now also with a plan. The meeting was coming up, and getting through it required being able to predict and guide his enemy’s actions.
The next half-minute spread itself out before him, shaped out of experience and what he could gather about the pirate ship. He told Herdis what to expect, and she gave a curt acknowledgment.
Twenty seconds.
The blinding radiation and their proximity to the other ship competed mightily with one another, but Gaylen could make out a total of four gun batteries, plus the nose guns and the laser.
Ten seconds, and the nose gun opened up.