Chapter 22. Through.

It had been hours, and it was only 20 minutes until they reached the border. Ellora had borrowed Alice's computer to find out which ships had the fuel and engines to match their speed, not many. She then spent the next several hours pacing the cockpit behind Alice.

Alice was a little less shaken because she was new to space travel. Intellectually, she knew what going asteroid meant, but it had less effect than Ellora, who had spent most of her life on ships.

In her research, she encountered stories of would-be saviors turning out to be thieves. An asteroid ship gets caught up to with an offer they can't refuse. Fuel, for everything. There were a few reports of actual pirates who would slaughter or ransom the crew. The Nightrunner was probably used for this considering its speed. It was easy prey, after all.

Thaum finished with the cloaking runic array, entered the cockpit. Ellora, who had gnawed her lower lip almost bloody, suddenly looked at him and shouted, "Magic." Thaum raised a brow. She said, "You can fly in space with your magic, right? So you could slow the ship down eventually, or at least enough to get help from regular ships."

Thaum shrugged, "technically possible, although stupid. Alice, how far are we to the border."

Alice swung around in her seat, "a few minutes."

Thaum had Ellora sit down and strap in while they waited. The sensors picked up Nexim Empire battleships. There were thousands of them of various sizes. Corvets, similar in size to his first ship, while Frigates and Destroyers made up most of the army, with a few cruisers interspersed. Two larger ships in the back were carriers for hundreds of corvet class ships. Even Thaum would rather avoid fighting that.

Thaum asked if the path was clear, or if they would have to use what little fuel left on maneuver thrusters. Alice told him that it was, but also very close, only a few kilometers from the nearest ship.

They were moving fast. Thaum had little time to think and, to be frank. His host body was more of a fighter pilot, not whatever this navigation problem was asking for. Thaum said, "Alice, you have been researching this problem. I'll leave it to you."

They both glanced at him, Alice making an audible gulping sound. Her hands flew over the controls, and various macros and equations flew across the screen Thaum didn't recognize.

Alice said, "it's clear, but close. We are far enough out a minor adjustment here would mean a significant difference in trajectory, but it is too large, the thrusters on this thing don't do precision. We could make an adjustment and overshoot into a cluster of ships we can't dodge.

If we wait, the thrusters won't have enough of an effect to matter."

Thaum asked, "Is there a sweet spot."

She shook her head no. They flew right past a few backline ships. Their thrusters cold. Then past the large ships, each more than a thousand times the Nightrunner's mass.

The spread of smaller ships was next. The screen flashed red, [collision warning] Thaum said, "Alice?"

She snapped back, "I said it was close."

Thaum grabbed both women magically, and they went intangible. They gasped at the unexpected feeling, and Thaum watched the screen as for tiny dot of an enemy ship grew rapidly. The ship's image covered the right wall monitor for a nanosecond and then was gone. They had flown past it.

They had left the Nexim Empire.

Alice chuckled nervously, "Only one point two kilometers. That was closer than it should have been."

Ellora asked, "Did you take into account the limits of sensor accuracy?"

Alice replied, "They are built into the navigation calculators."

Thaum sighed, "Figure it out later."

The sensors picked up movement behind them. The entire fleet was moving, but it didn't matter Thaum was already going too fast to be caught up to. Anything that could theoretically catch up would spend a long time doing it. The Nightrunner would only have to fart starboard, and they would end up hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from their original trajectory. This was rather anticlimactic.

Thaum wondered if they were the reason the fleet started moving now or if it was just a coincidence. He was confident in his stealth spell, but he has been surprised by technology before.

"Alice, adjust course slightly, then use your galactic net terminal to warn whatever government controls this space of the incoming fleet."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Ellora supplied, "The Septem Alliance, and I should have thought of doing that earlier. Anything to fuck with the Nexim Empire."

Alice came back with the computer and asked what she should write. Thaum just told her to send "The Nexim empire is attacking." along with the sensor readings they took as they flew through the fleet.

Alice took a few minutes to put the message together and then hit send. However, her screen went black before the image of Eric vos Treller appeared, the man Thaum traded his Appolimus to, then sent the army after him.

Eric said, "I'm sorry, But I'm afraid I can't let you do that." while waging his finger as if scolding a child. "alot of recourses have gone into this war, and I won't have you mucking up the first strike."

Alice started hitting buttons, anything that would get the man who started this mess off the screen.

Eric seemed amused, "That won't work, you know. That is military hardware. The moment deckhand Wolfram, then commander told us his terminal was compromised, I took over the other side of the quantum entanglement. That device will do nothing without my agreement."

...

Eric's amused smile dropped, "do not ignore me, Alice."

Alice gasped.

Eric grinned, "yes, I know a lot about you, even have your mother."

Alice snorted, "She's dead, or I hope she is."

Eric raised a brow, "That can be arranged... Another thing that can be arranged is, well. Let me backtrack a little. A ship comes to a station for fuel just before the border, the station explodes. The ship that happens to have been stolen by your group, now you are wondering how I know about the Nightrunner--"

Thaum interrupted, "I do not remember you being so. Chatty, get to the point."

Eric couldn't keep the frown from his face, "I thought a man of your skills would appreciate the game, but if you insist. I can arrange a ship that can catch up to you and refuel your ship."

Thaum blocked out the man as he thought. He interrupted again, "Your people put a tracker on my ship when it was docked."

Eric's eyes lit up, "Yes yes, the docking clamps for that station can drill a beacon into your ship and use nanites to repair the hole like nothing happened. How do you think we control the border."

Thaum chuckled, "So this smuggler's ship probably already had a beacon and was just paying the 'fee,' so to speak."

"three, actually. We saw it pass through the sensor net at ridiculous speed, and my navigator said the Nightrunner wouldn't have the fuel to go that fast without going meteor. Not without fueling up at a rather missing station." Eric leaned forward after a pause, "90%."

Thaum raised a brow, "90%."

Eric chirped, "Yes, 90% of the Appolimus sale, and I will save you, won't even put you in jail. The Empire has more important things at the moment." Thaum just starred. Eric said, "You and your crew can discuss it, but remember, time is running out. If you pass the survival ship, you will starve to death in there. Rich corpses, but still corpses."

Thaum snorted and closed the screen, then started laughing, "I'm going to kill that asshole."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Three weeks later.

Thaum had pulled his first ship out of his dimensional storage and used it to both slow down and collect fuel from a nebula. They then continued through Alliance space heading for the Voletelli confederation. There wasn't a real reason for that particular part of the galaxy, but Ellora's homeworld is there and apparently has a lot of opportunity for the competent in that area of space.

Alice had her features changed. She asked Thaum to be a ten, so now she was. Not that he was complaining.

Ellora convinced Thaum to start giving her very basic empathic training, mostly so she could turn it off and stop annoying him with random feelings accidently projected his way.

Thaum had completed part one of step one. Get rich. Now he planned to find a place to settle and use it to become wealthy. It may have been messier getting here than he would have liked, but sometimes it fun that way.

End of Book One.

(I'm not sure if I'll continue this, noone seems to be interested, but it seems like a good place to stop. Book 2 would be them finding a place to settle. Thaum figuring out on the side how to get to Eric. The girls figuring out what they are going to do and how they will fit into Thaums plans etc.)