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  There was a loud clicking repetition, followed by a short jerk and thud.

  “Go ahead and retract,” Jalia said, relieved as she reached up to tap the OFF button on her comm. “We’re good to go.”

  Several loud thumps sounded as the magnetic clamps deactivated and retracted from the ship. Jalia cut the comm and jogged back into the cockpit, activating the autopilot stabilization program that instantly nulled out the list resulting from clamp release.

  “Here we go,” she whispered as two Cres stepped onto the bridge behind her. “Have a seat.”

  The pair with her dropped into two of four empty bridge chairs as Jalia activated the shields in an alternate mode. Several holes were retained to allow the mooring beams to function, and one leapt out from the bow of the stubby, yet long cargo transport. It connected to a sphere jutting out on a short support pillar half again the length of the Resolute in front of the ship. The invisible beam acted as a physical grip point for the ship to maneuver on, and Jalia gently began easing the ship forward and away from the docking bay wall.

  Another mooring sphere became visible to port as a large passenger transport was cleared. The Resolute latched onto it with a second beam and started a hard turn toward the central clear zone that led to the bay doors. That zone, however, had two large ships parked in the center, so Jalia was going to have to maneuver around the edges of the clear zone.

  Normally all ships were docked around the edges of the bay, but these two super-­cargo haulers were too large and would have eaten up too many ports on the bay ring, so they were docked on secondary ports in the ceiling and floor of the bay. This left adequate maneuvering room, but a starship wasn’t exactly a nimble craft.

  So far so good. Keep it nice and slow, you’re in no rush.

  She activated a third beam and drifted her ship towards the floor of the bay, lining up the bow with the axis of the super-­hauler that was running perpendicular to the bay doors. Now clear of the bay ring, she released the first mooring sphere and latched onto two more in range, one ahead and one to starboard on the floor.

  At such slow speeds it took quite a while to get past the massive ship, but a few minutes of creeping later Jalia readjusted the mooring beams and turned the corner, spinning the ship about 90 degrees while halting its forward momentum. Using the beams only, Jalia started the ship moving past the bow of the super-­hauler and closer to the open doors.

  Still no sign of trouble with security.

  A minute later and the Resolute was past the hauler, readjusting its course to port for a straight-­line exit trajectory. Jalia was tempted to goose their speed with a spurt from the plasma engines, but such maneuvers were strictly banned. With the exhaust traveling at a significant fraction of lightspeed, it could do damage to the other ships, or even the bay itself. It would also be a telltale sign that something was amiss. She had to be patient, even though the stars were now visible through the semi-­distant bay doors.

  She kept the ship moving at a creep, adjusting speed and direction with a nudge from the mooring beams as needed as the Resolute drifted toward the rectangular opening on the port side of the jumpship. She knew that simultaneously the starboard bay was disgorging its own ships, with several insystem starships being advised of the jumpship’s arrival that would subsequently be headed to this location.

  For the next two weeks the Vernera would act as a floating island within the Hellis System, a temporary outpost for the Gorovan corporation and a commerce hub, with its onboard population nearly doubling as locals migrated to the city for all manner of reasons.

  Jalia knew that the jumpship was about to become a beehive of activity and if they were able to get free of the bay then there was a good chance they’d be lost in the turmoil. The Cres altercation would be downplayed, filed away for future reference, and business as normal would resume.

  She hoped.

  That meant if they were going to be stopped it would have to be now. Jalia gave her ship a gentle twist as it approached the bay doors, then latched onto all the mooring spheres within range and accelerated her ship to four times its current speed.

  A moment later the Resolute passed through the doors with the mooring beams deactivating as their line-­of-­sight connections were obscured. Jalia wasn’t supposed to engage engines until she was 150 keets away, at minimum. The momentum she’d built up with that last lurch would carry the Resolute out to that distance in about twenty minutes, during which they’d have to wait to use their plasma engines.

  Fortunately Jalia had another option.

  She activated her ship’s gravity drive at minimal power and latched onto the gravity of the system’s star. With just a tweak of pull, the Resolute was launched toward the star at four keets/second, and the jumpship quickly shrank from view behind them.

  They were in the clear now, as far as jumpship security was concerned. Jalia sincerely hoped that had been the hard part and they’d just dodged the blast, but with a ticket price of 100,000 credits she had a bad feeling that wasn’t going to be the end of it.

  Chapter 4

  “ALRIGHT, WE’RE OUT. Where to now?”

  The female Cres tilted her chin up. “What options do we have from our current position?”

  Jalia turned and brought up a navigation chart. “My name is Jalia, by the way.”

  “Yes, I know,” she said matter-­of-­factly. “Those in the cargo hold are Orrona, Lornas, and Ella. I am Ivara, and this is Marren.”

  Jalia frowned slightly as a small holographic map appeared over the navigation console. “You’re telepathic?” she asked, still not wanting to believe it.

  “Yes,” Ivara said simply.

  “So I don’t really need to say anything . . . because you already know what I’m thinking?”

  Ivara slowly shook her head. “You still need to speak to us. Don’t assume that we know anything.”

  “But you do . . .” Jalia argued slightly.

  “Sometimes,” Ivara offered.

  “Alright,” Jalia said, letting it go and facing the map. “We’re in the Hellis System. Twenty one planetoids, three inhabited worlds, four colonies, two mining settlements, and one large Gorovan mining station in the system’s asteroid belt. Several other minor installations spread through the system. I don’t suppose the Cres have anything here?” she asked doubtfully.

  “We do not,” Ivara stated flatly.

  “Well, there are four nearby systems within range. We can try and make one of those on our own, but it’ll take us several weeks to get there.”

  “Show me,” Ivara said.

  Jalia zoomed out and the Hellis System became a small dot within the hologram. There were four other dots circling it at the edges, one nearly on top of it, two far below, and one far right.

  “Am I correct in assuming there are no jumpship routes to these systems? Ivara asked.

  “Well, they’re too small for the megacorporations to bother with running a jumpship line to, but on occasion you’ll see a private line go through Korfax.”

  “Expand the map, please,” Ivara asked.

  Jalia zoomed out and sixteen more systems winked into view. She pressed another button and the jumpship lines appeared, connecting Hellis with Rudia and Portix. Another V-­shaped line appeared intersecting only the Iras System from somewhere outside the edges of the map.

  “Here,” Ivara said, pointing to Iras. “That is where we need to go. Yiori jumpship lanes intersect with Cres territory. Once there we can be at Illora within half a cycle.”

  “Illora?” Jalia asked.

  Ivara looked her in the eye gently, as if she were instructing a child. “Illora is our homeworld, far from here, but you only need to see us into Cres territory. Our fleet will carry us the rest of the way.”

  “Why aren’t you traveling on one of your own ships now?”

  When Ivara hesitated, Marren ans
wered for her. “Our warship engaged the enemy while we escaped with our cargo. Since then, we’ve had to utilize commercial transport.”

  Jalia spun her chair around to fully face the male Cres. “If you don’t mind me asking,” she said, glancing once at Ivara, “what is this cargo and who is trying to take it from you?”

  The two Cres exchanged looks, and Jalia imagined they were having a telepathic conversation. In the end it was Ivara who spoke.

  “A small Human relic was discovered in the Borris System by a Presca colonial excavation team. When we learned of this, an archaeological team was sent to investigate. Our relationship with the Horrat sect of the Presca is amicable, so we were able to access the dig site immediately and worked alongside their construction teams for several months, ensuring that the colony excavation didn’t damage any remaining artifacts.”

  “We were there for more than two cycles and didn’t find more than a few pieces of debris. The colony construction began and we moved on to search elsewhere on the planet. We believed that the debris fragments were the remains of a crashed Human vessel, and possibly could have been ejected many keets away from the primary impact site. We spent another full cycle looking until we discovered the ancient impact crater, buried beneath a large lake, far from the Presca colony. We quietly began excavation while sending a message back requesting military support.”

  “I can understand that,” Jalia said in awe. The last Human artifact discovered now belonged to the Cassni, who’d had to fight a six year war to maintain possession of it. That effort was paying off immensely for them as several new technological insights were making their way forward and strengthening their race, literally, for at least one of the breakthroughs had been genetic in nature, with the Cassni soldiers growing a tougher skin that doubled as body armor.

  In addition to that, their economy was booming as a result of new industrial procedures that were reducing overhead costs and tripling production output. Jalia didn’t know what exactly the Human artifact was that was providing these advancements, but the effects on the Cassni were obvious . . . and that had been labeled as a ‘small’ archaeological find. “Every major power within 100 wesks would have pulled a mag jump for a chance to get their hands on a Human ship.”

  “There wasn’t much left,” Ivara continued, “but several key pieces of technology were salvaged. We began shipping what we found back to our territory, but eventually word got around about our find and dozens of research teams with armed escorts began arriving insystem. None of them encroached on our dig site, but they searched elsewhere and kept a close eye on our activities.

  “Their patience eventually faded, and some of them began making surreptitious raids on the lakebed. We fought off the thieves, but they weren’t deterred. As time went on, more and more military assets began arriving in the system. They didn’t challenge us directly, we had three warships in geosynchronous orbit by that time, but the situation was becoming untenable.

  “One day the Nevari made a small find on a nearby continent, probably another piece of the ship ejected during impact, but we don’t know for sure. The Revette attacked them and took the relic, which started a multidimensional war between all the represented factions. Several teamed up and attacked our dig site. They had little chance fighting us underwater, but we lost one of our warships in the ensuing space battle.”

  Jalia’s eyes widened. She’d never heard of the Cres losing a ship. “That must have taken some doing.”

  “They had numbers,” Ivara explained. “After that battle things settled down for a while, but more reinforcements began to arrive in the system daily. We grounded one of our warships to provide more security, while the other remained in orbit. No more attacks came, but we knew they were building momentum for a larger assault.

  “We couldn’t get reinforcements in time to head off the assault, so we loaded up as much Human tech as we could onto the surface ship and scuttled the rest. When the loaded warship made orbit it was attacked, disabled, and boarded. Our other warship was destroyed in the battle, then the attackers turned on themselves. We don’t know who survived, how much tech was taken, or who now has it.”

  “Wait . . . where were all of you?” Jalia asked.

  “Our cargo was deemed too important to risk trying to fight our way offworld. We hid ourselves beneath the dig site, detonated a Kita bomb over us vaporizing the lake, and then we waited. From what the Presca said, the enemy surveyed the crater thoroughly but eventually abandoned it and moved on to investigate other leads within the system.

  “Another warship eventually came to dig us out. Unfortunately the excavation attracted more attention and a small fleet of Nevari warships gathered above us. We felt we couldn’t risk our cargo, so we sent our warship out without us. The Nevari attacked and chased it as it fled. We don’t know what happened to it, but the ruse worked. We took the cargo overland to the Presca colony and arranged transport. We eventually made our way to a system on the jumpship network and secured additional passage that was supposed to bring us back to Cres territory. Then our ship blew up and we met you.”

  “Quite a story,” Jalia said, running it all through her mind. “How did your warship know to dig you out? You said your other warships didn’t make it out of the system, so they couldn’t have carried the message.”

  Ivara looked at her coolly. “That is one secret we will keep, Junta.”

  “Hmmn . . . I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what this cargo is I’m now carrying either?”

  “No,” the Cres said, almost apologetically.

  “Fair enough,” Jalia declared. “If we’re going to the Iras System, it’ll take us four jumps. My ship isn’t rated above .7 wesks per jump, and it’s going to be pushing the limit between Korfax and Ceb. I’ll also need to refuel each jump, assuming you don’t want to take two cycles to get there.”

  “How fast is this ship?” Marren asked.

  “Six point three,” Jalia answered, “at max. And she’s quite the fuel hog at that acceleration.”

  “You have cargo to off-­load in this system?” Ivara asked.

  “Yes.”

  The Cres nodded once. “Go about your business in Hellis. We’ll depart once you’ve finished.”

  Jalia frowned. “I thought you’d want to get out of this system as soon as possible?”

  “We want to remain undetected,” she clarified. “If your ship deviates from normal behavior it could alert our pursuers. When they cannot find us on the jumpship, they will expand their search.”

  “All the more reason to be gone,” Jalia argued. “There’s a very short list of possibilities for them to follow up.”

  “But if this ship makes port, as others will, the possibility of our remaining onboard is negligible. A ship that immediately leaves the system will draw attention.”

  “Point taken,” Jalia said. “However, my leaving my crew on the jumpship might also draw attention.”

  “All the more reason to begin off-­loading your cargo as if nothing is wrong,” Ivara counseled. “You wouldn’t be the first captain to shortchange his crew.”

  Jalia grimaced. “Except that we deposited 100 credits each into their accounts.”

  Ivara looked as if she hadn’t considered that. Her deep blue lips tightened. “If we leave the system now, we draw immediate attention. If your missing crew is noticed, and their account deposits are discovered, it will probably take some time. For now, proceed as you had planned.”

  Jalia tugged at the band wrapping her headtails. “Alright, but I’m shorthanded. I’ll need your help when we reach the docks.”

  Ivara nodded deeply. “Where is your first port of call?”

  Jalia turned back to the control board and zoomed the map into the Hellis System, then pointed at a small blip next to the system’s primary asteroid field.

  “The Gorovan mining station Fallix 4.”

/>   Chapter 5

  THE ASTEROID BELT stretched a fifth of the way around its orbital path, spreading its rocks across a wide area. Most of the asteroids were large though, which was uncommon. It also meant that the majority of the material in the field was located only in a few locations. Most ships would pass through the belt without even knowing one existed, and if they did encounter one of the rocks, they’d most likely dismiss it as a rogue.

  Only a thorough cataloging of the system by Gorovan expeditionary scout vessels had revealed the presence of the field. Further study of the constituent materials had shown a minimal, yet consistent amount of corovon present. When that find had been made the corporate execs had immediately petitioned for the rights to mine the field, which they got without much arm twisting.

  Once the legalities were settled behind closed doors, a prefabricated mining hub was transported into the system in pieces via jumpship. The Fallix 4 station was assembled within half a cycle and staffed with an army of workers and a navy of recovery probes to harvest the field. Several other valuable materials were also present and recoverable within the asteroids, but the corovon was the reason that Gorovan had pressed the issue and moved the processing station to the system.

  Corovon was unique in that it was both an element and a subatomic particle. It appeared as a greenish metal that made for the strongest armor available, but its rarity made that application scarcely seen. Rather, it was reserved for the making of fission fuels. The corovon, as a subatomic particle, acted as a bonding agent between protons and neutrons above and beyond their existing nuclear attraction. Thus, by adding corovon particles to an atomic structure, very high mass atoms could be synthesized.

  These high mass atoms were then used in fission reactors, producing the massive amounts of power required for space travel, defense shields, weapons, etc. Without the corovon, sometimes referred to as ‘Element C,’ lesser forms of power generation had to be used, severely limiting technological capabilities . . . though some races have done well without corovon-­based fuels. As it was, most of the present superpowers within the local part of the galaxy used high mass fission reactors, and as a result required a steady supply of corovon to produce their fuel.