inward where it will be captured by the primary world, Corinair. Once settled into orbit, it is further dismantled into nothing.”
“How does this help us?”
“It takes decades for this process to complete. Therefore there are literally dozens of hollow asteroids scattered throughout the belt, waiting to be de-orbited. And there are hundreds more that have had huge caverns carved out in preparation for an eventual mining station to be placed inside to complete the harvesting. Nearly a decade ago, we prepared one such asteroid to act as a hiding place for a ship even larger than your own. We had hoped to capture such a ship from the Ta’Akar. But that task proved beyond our means, and the effort was abandon. The base, however, remains available. Once inside, your ship would be invisible to all scans. And as far as anyone else knew, it would be just another mining camp operating inside an asteroid.”
“I’m a bit confused, Tug,” Nathan stated. “If this place is such a good hiding place, why didn’t Jalea tell us to go there instead of Korak, or Haven for that matter?” Nathan suspected he already knew the answer. He also suspected that the answer he was about to receive would not be the truth.
“Simple, Captain. Neither she nor Marak knew of its existence. The project had been completed by my cell, under my supervision. The other cells knew of the project, vaguely, but not of its location.”
“Who else knows about this hideout?” Jessica asked.
“My entire cell was killed during our attempt to capture a Ta’Akar warship. I am the only one left alive who knows that this hideout, as you put it, is still available and is located in the Darvano system.”
Nathan wasn’t sure he believed Tug’s explanation. While it did explain a few things, and it lined up nicely with what they already knew about the rebels, it seemed convenient.
“What about patrols?” Jessica asked. “Are there any Ta’Akar ships stationed in the system?”
“The Ta’Akar are down to only about twenty warships. But only three of them are the large capital ships. There were once four of them, until you arrived.” Tug smiled respectfully.
“And the others?” Jessica asked.
“About six of them are the heavier cruisers, like the one that is probably still sitting in the Haven system. The rest are smaller patrol frigates, like the ones you encountered in the Korak system.”
“How are they deployed?”
“The capital ships stay closer in. There are usually two of them in the vicinity of the Takara system, in order to protect the capital. They are normally accompanied by a few of the heavy cruisers as well as several patrol ships. The third will tend to wander amongst the other three systems, making unscheduled visits in order to maintain a visible presence. She generally drags one or two patrol ships along with her. The rest regularly patrol the borders of the cluster, occasionally sticking their noses back into territories that they once directly controlled, just to ensure they are not forgotten.”
“The patrol ships don’t worry me, Captain,” Jessica explained. “But the heavy cruisers are a handful, even if we were at full strength. The capital ships? Forget about it. If we hadn’t jumped in so close to the first one by accident, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near it without being vaporized from a hundred-thousand kilometers away.”
“Yeah, and without even breaking a sweat,” Nathan added, remembering the pounding they had taken during their first engagement with the Ta’Akar.
“You are quite correct,” Tug said. “That is exactly why we were never able to capture any of the larger ships. Their reach and their fire rates are too great. We could never get anywhere near them.”
“So you think this base, the one inside the asteroid-this will be a good place for us to hide?”
“Yes, Captain. I do. It was designed to accommodate the repair and retrofitting of spacecraft of at least your size.”
Nathan looked at Cameron. “What do you think, Commander?”
“I’m not crazy about the idea of flying the Aurora into a cave,” she stated emphatically. “What happens if the find us? We’d be sitting ducks inside that rock. How would we even know if anyone were out there when it came time to leave?”
“The base was equipped with external sensors to monitor the area, as well as external communications equipment.”
“They could see that, couldn’t they?” Cameron said. “A rock with sensors and comm-towers on it has got to look suspicious.”
“Unless yours is not the only rock that has such equipment,” Tug pointed out with a smile. “Commander, there are at least a hundred active mining camps located inside such rocks. All of them are similarly equipped. It would look no more suspicious to the Ta’Akar than would the comm-array on your ship.”
“Hiding in plain sight,” Jessica commented. “One of the oldest techniques in the spy game.” She looked at Nathan. “There’s no better way to gather intel than to park your butt right in the middle of the enemy’s backyard.”
“I’m sure you’re right, Jess,” Nathan agreed, “but I have to side with Commander Taylor on this one. The idea of a Ta’Akar ship trolling around the belt while we’re hiding inside an asteroid… well that makes me just a bit nervous.”
“The Ta’Akar ships do not patrol the area in the sense that you mean. When they enter the system, they usually just enter orbit over the most populated world in the system, sit there for a few days, and then depart. These days, they spend more time patrolling the borders of Ta’Akar space than the interiors.”
“What’s the payoff?” Nathan asked. “Other than the cool hideout, what does this system have to offer us?”
“You should be able to find anything you need,” Jalea told him. “Food, medicine, parts, raw materials. You can even hire additional skilled labor if desired, to help you with your repairs. Corinair is not Haven. It is a highly advanced, fully developed, industrialized world with more than a billion inhabitants. There are even small shipyards located within the asteroid belt itself, servicing the smaller ships that ply the belt.”
“I see,” Nathan said, leaning back in his chair. “Then what exactly are you proposing that we do?” The question was directed at Tug. Rather than jousting back and forth, Nathan preferred to let Tug explain his vision of a plan, and then decide how it fit with their own goals.
“I’m not sure I understand, Captain.”
“Assume for a moment that we have agreed to join forces with you to help you defeat the Ta’Akar, in exchange for which you would provide us with a working version of this zero-point energy device. What would your plan be?”
Tug looked at Nathan, then Jalea, then Jessica and Cameron. He had not expected such a question and felt ill-prepared. “Well, from what you’ve told me so far, your ship is not only in need of repair, but its construction is also incomplete. The asteroid base I spoke of would be ideal for this task, as it is already equipped with power generation, living quarters, a medical bay, and even modest fabrication shops. Also, and please take no offense at this, it would appear that your technology is somewhat behind our own. Maybe not in all areas, but in most. We might be able to improve some of your existing systems, or even add some of our technology to them to give you greater capabilities. In fact, if we could capture even one small patrol frigate, we might be able to install many of their systems on board your vessel. Combined with the tactical advantage of your jump drive, we could quickly defeat many of their ships-maybe even strike at the heart of the Ta’Akar capital-cutting off the head of the dragon, so to speak.”
“Whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there, Tug,” Nathan exclaimed. “Helping you take out a few ships, maybe even capture one or two of them to give you a fighting chance-that’s one thing. Jumping into the middle of the primary system and attacking their leader? That’s quite another.”
“If you want access to the zero-point energy device, that’s where you have to go. To Takara.”
“We’re not interested in helping you over-throw the entire regime, Tug.”
“No one is asking you to do so. But if you want the device, you have to go to Takara. If you wait for them to install it on one of their ships in the hopes of trying to capture that ship, it will be too late.”
Nathan sighed, wondering how they had managed to get in so deeply in such a short period of time. All he had been doing since they had arrived was trying to find a way home.
“Doctor Sorenson,” Nathan asked, “how long would it take us to multi-jump all the way home?”
“Assuming that we restrict ourselves to jumps of eight light years, for safety sake, and that we spend ten hours at each stop to recharge and perform service and diagnostics-about fifty-two days. Throw in down time for
