“You’re wanted on charges of treason, aiding and abetting known terrorists, and endangering the safety of the public,” Sergeant Dawson said.
So that’s what they’re pushing, huh? Straight from Moran, no doubt.
“Quite a list there,” Thorne fired back. “Apparently I’ve been busy.”
“Apparently.”
I need thirty charge to Heroic Leap on to the closest shuttle. Any extra charge I’ll dump into breaking down the door and getting inside.
She checked her charge bar. Her shield had gained five charge from the shot the blast warden had taken to trigger combat.
Twenty-five to go, then. If I get in close to the wardens, the shuttles will have to hold fire. That’ll be step one. Hopefully I can live long enough to make it to step two…
Thorne raised her hammer.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s do this.”
Chapter Seven
Welcome to Nova Online
“Finally!” Kaiden almost shouted as he loaded into the game and spawned inside the Veritas II. Titus and Zelda appeared next to him a moment later, their characters glowing for a moment as they finished loading in.
“My account was locked,” Kaiden said. “What was that all about?”
“Same,” Titus said, a frown plastered across his face.
“That makes three of us, then,” Zelda said. “That sounds coordinated. Almost as if—”
“Captains!” a friendly voice called out. “It’s a pleasure to have you back.”
Acton was striding toward them from the cockpit. It hadn’t been that long since he’d seen him last, but given everything that had transpired, it sure felt like it. Not to mention it just felt good to be back in Nova Online. In the real world it was all hiding and plotting, running and looking over his shoulder. In Nova, he could defend himself. In Nova, he was strong. Strong enough to maybe – just maybe – bring down the Party.
“The ship wasn’t the same without you,” Acton said, gesturing to the room around them. “For one, we haven’t had to do anything even remotely suicidal.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to that,” Kaiden said with a laugh.
“He’s right. We’ve work to do,” Zelda added with a sharp nod.
The first officer straightened at the mention of work.
“Of course. Very good,” he said, then gestured out the cockpit windshield. “If you look outside, you’ll notice absolutely nothing of distinction. That’s because, per your last orders, we’ve taken the ship ‘somewhere out of the way.’”
“And where is that?” Kaiden asked, peering out at a vast expanse of featureless, empty space.
“Dead space. Away from any relevant stars, out of the shipping lanes, and far from any combat zones. We are, functionally, in the middle of nowhere.”
Yeah, I guess that qualifies as safe.
“The ship’s still a fair bit banged up from the excitement at the void tear,” Zelda said, reading the information displayed on the monitor on the near wall. “We’re going to need to get that repaired. What’s the nearest station that could handle it?”
Acton narrowed his eyes.
“With all due respect, Captain, but we’re not expecting any more... excitement, are we? Or should I ready the crew?”
Kaiden chuckled at that. “Nothing so crazy as playing bait and flying between two warring fleets,” he said. “All the same, I can’t promise easy flying either.”
Acton nodded. “In that case, we’ll set course for the nearest station,” he said, then patted the pilot on the shoulder. “See it done, yes?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Actually,” Kaiden said as a thought occurred to him. “Set course for the nearest turen station. Our good standing with them might be necessary. We’d like to avoid any run-ins with the Warden Corps.”
“Very good, Captain.”
“Oh, and Acton?” Kaiden asked after a glance toward Zelda. “Which of our current crew would you say is the safest?”
“The safest, sir?”
“Least likely to die,” Titus corrected.
Acton seemed confused at the thought, and Kaiden found he couldn’t blame him. To be fair, it was an odd question. But the request attached to it was going to be just as odd.
“Well, I suppose if the ship were to be destroyed, we’d all die. Disregarding that…” He thought for a moment. “Were the shields to go down, the cockpit would be a prime target for an attacking ship. Sias,” he said, nodding to the pilot, “and I would be in a high-risk area. Likewise, were we to be boarded, the remains of our own boarding crew – much depleted from our previous adventure, I might add – would engage the trespassers. Thus, I suppose our ‘safest’ crew members would be the mechanics and core engineer. Their stations are deep inside the ship and their roles do not require them to participate in active combat.”
“But an unstable core is volatile and prone to exploding, right?” Zelda asked. “So I wouldn’t want to trust our core engineer with this job.”
“That just leaves the general ship mechanics, then,” Kaiden said.
“All right, then,” Titus said and gestured toward the exit of the cockpit. “Let’s go have a chat with them.”
“Braker, Johnson,” Kaiden said, making sure his words were very clear as he spoke to the two NPC mechanics. “You understand what we’ve told you, right?”
“Got a ship needs fixin’, I’m your man,” Braker said in what seemed to be his favorite of his extremely limited programmed responses.
“We’ll keep it shipshape down here, Captain,” Johnson said.
Titus laughed. Kaiden sighed.
“Lighten up,” Titus said. “It’s never going to come to this. You really think someone’s going to not only manage to find this ship, but also board it, defeat us, and have the good sense to check the crew for the database?”
“I really hope not,” Kaiden said with a glance toward the mechanics.
To be fair, it was a good plan, though it’d sounded better when Zelda pitched it. There was only one copy of Bernstein’s database in-game and it had to be kept safe. Taking it into a PVP zone would mean if its keeper died, the database could be looted. That was an unacceptable risk. So, the answer was clear: keep the database out of PVP zones. But
