There was a sudden flurry of movement on the bridge. The image of the corvette slid to one side of the viewscreen, though it continued to grow larger at an impressive rate.
“We’re being hailed, sir,” Gran said calmly. “Should I answer?”
Kas shook his head. “Keep your mind on your weapons. Let ‘em keep guessing. Maybe it’ll distract him from raising his shields. What’s the time to high confidence?”
“Twenty seconds, sir. Ten seconds. Firing in five… four… three… two… one… Firing! Firing! Firing!”
If Kas hadn’t been expecting it the results would have been disappointing for the first seconds. Since there are no atmospheric particles in space to render a laser beam visible, the only indication that Gran had fired was an infinitesimal white dot that flared on the corvette’s missile rack, and another that slashed across the bridge and then disappeared, so quickly as to barely be seen. The dots faded, then bloomed again. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash as a missile detonated in its rack, followed by an even greater actinic flash, and a circular fireball that dissipated immediately.
Kas blinked rapidly, and when his vision cleared the corvette was gone, replaced by an expanding cloud of debris. “Rom!” he shouted, “bring us bow on to the debris cloud, and pray that our shields deflect that junk! Once we pass through the debris cloud cancel all acceleration and bring us back around. I hope that crew’s all right.” That hope was sincere. More than a hundred and fifty people had just died in that single flash, and Kas’ satisfaction with his victory was tempered by that realization. To Kas, the only possible justification for that loss of life would be the survival of the tramp’s crew. The mere fact that they’d avoided endangering their mission was cold comfort.
The shields held, and none of the debris that until seconds ago had been a state-of-the-art warship got through.
Chapter 5
Finally, Kas could turn his attention to the tramp. It would take thousands of kilometers for Starhopper to slow and vector back toward the other ship and more than an hour before they could come alongside.
Kas sighed. “Well. Does anyone have any suggestions concerning what we do about the tramp and her crew?”
Rom scowled. “Strictly speaking, we should finish what the Glories started. Otherwise, our cover is blown completely.”
Kas nodded. “That’s what I mean. They have to know we’re armed and that we destroyed that corvette. I doubt they’ll believe it just happened to blow up at the moment we came barreling in on it.”
Gran was looking as unhappy as Kas felt. “Uh, they might not have seen anything, sir. Remember, that second missile was aimed at their sensor array; and it was fired before we were in detection range.”
“But it was a miss,” Tera put in. “We don’t know if it took out all their sensors.”
Kas sighed again. “All right, I see three alternatives. But I’m not sure we can live with two of them.” He raised a finger. “First, we can finish what the Glories started and destroy the ship.” He held up a hand to forestall the angry replies. “I’m sure that’s what Imperial Intelligence would tell us to do.”
He held up another finger. “Second, we can just leave them here and boost out. Chances are they haven’t seen us and are sitting over there wondering when the Glories are coming. Of course, their drive coils are destroyed, so unless someone else happened by they’d just drift here forever. With their sensor array damaged, they may not even be able to get an SOS beacon working. But,” he continued, 'We don't know what sensors they have that are still functional. They may have seen everything.'
He raised a third finger. “Finally, we can say to hell with Imperial Intelligence and follow our natural inclinations to rescue them.” Again he raised a hand to forestall interruptions. “Unfortunately, that one leads to complications. If we just pick them up and drop them at our next recal stop several things will happen, all bad. First, the authorities are going to want details about this Glory ‘pirate’ — and they’re going to want to ask us some hard questions.”
“Second, that tramp skipper is going to mention that the Glories talked about a battle cruiser. We do not want planetary authorities thinking about us and battle cruisers at the same time.
“Finally, even if they did let us leave, it wouldn’t be for days or weeks. If they figured out who we were, we might never leave.”
“There might be another option.” The quiet voice belonged to Tera. All heads turned toward the Astrogator.
“We won’t be grounding again until we’re on the way back,” she continued. “We could bring them aboard and pop them into cold storage until we get to the Rekesh.”
Gran shook his head. “I wish we could, Tera,” he replied. “But we don’t have any empty cold sleep units. We’d have to revive other crew.”
Kas was also shaking his head. “And we don’t have cover documents for anyone but us,” he continued.
Tera shrugged. “Maybe, but I’ll bet that the people on that ship have all the identification they’ll need.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Kas admitted. “We could rescue those people, pop them into cold storage, and the people we revive could use their ID’s and the tramp’s ship’s papers.”
Gran breathed a sigh of relief. “It sounds better to me than turning the lasers on them, sir. I’m not sure I could do it.”
Kas shook his head. “Me, either. All right, we bring them aboard. Once they’re aboard we’ll try to remember people in cold sleep that might fit their identification.” He tossed Rom a key. “Rom, get a hand weapon out of the weapons locker. They may not be exactly willing to climb into those cabinets.”
As they approached the tramp it was obvious that she was in serious trouble. As expected, her drive coils had been rendered unusable by the Glory’s missile. The near-miss on her sensor array had even more serious consequences. It appeared that all of the tramp’s sensors and antennas had indeed been destroyed, but more important, a deep gash in the hull was leaking a white cloud of air and water vapor.
As Rom maneuvered Starhopper alongside the tramp, he asked, “Should I grapple her airlock-to- airlock?”
Kas shook his head. “If all their sensors are out, I wouldn’t put it past them to short their fusactor and blow their own ship, if they thought they could take that Glory with them. No,” he continued, “stand off a bit. Edro, you’re our comm expert. D’you think you can work out a way to talk to them?”
Edro flushed, but he nodded. He ducked through the bridge hatch and headed for the airlock to suit up.
They watched as the little man jumped expertly across the ten-meter gap between the ships, and landed gracefully a meter from the ruined antenna array. He knelt and fumbled at his suit for a moment, then devoted several minutes’ attention to the stub of one of the ruined antennas.
“Uhhh, Captain,” finally came from Kas’ com in Edro’s self-conscious mutter, “I’ve got comm with them. Think you’d better talk to ‘em.”
Kas grinned, “All right, Edro,” he replied, “Connect me now. Hello, is anyone there? This is Captain Kas Preslin of the Free Trader Starhopper. The pirate is gone.”
The voice that answered him was clearly the one he’d heard arguing with the Glory, though it was muffled. Apparently she was suited. “Well, you sure don’t sound like a Glory! Good thing you called; we had a dead man switch connected to our fusactor.”
He chuckled. “That’s why we called first. I hate just dropping in on people- there can so many unpleasant surprises!”
“Well,” she replied, “now that the conventions are dealt with, who visits who?”
Kas chuckled again. “Why not come on over here, and we’ll discuss our options.”
“Options? Oh, well…” Kas could practically hear her shrug.
Rom nudged Starhopper within two meters of the ship, whose scarred antirad bore the name Lady Jane. Within moments, two suited figures jumped across the gap. Kas and Rom were waiting as the inner lock door cycled.
The suits, one tall, one medium, stepped through the lock. Both people reached up and released their helmet catches. The tall one was a thin, bald, middle-aged man. It was his companion, however that grabbed Kas’
