Despite that show of mercy and restraint, the swift, thorough dismantling of the support ship sent a message that was hard to ignore; to Aiden's surprise but vast relief, at the sight of it the final transport turned and fled.
The four remaining fighters took off in hot pursuit, but he had few hopes that they'd be able to bring the sturdy support ship down before it got away. Especially if it already had a rift jump calculated, which was a sensible precaution in any battle.
Sure enough, less than a minute later it was gone.
Aiden sagged back in relief, taking his hands off the controls and allowing his ship to continue to coast. That transport might still come back, and with friends, but the fact that they were alive at all was a miracle. One he was happy to take at least a few moments to enjoy.
“Where you at on that rift jump?” he asked Barix.
Before the slight man could answer, Elyssa's face popped into view on his main display, scowling fiercely in a way that suggested she was more pissed off than discouraged by how this battle had gone for her.
Aiden was getting heartily sick of seeing his former crew member. “Ali, I thought you were synced up now,” he snapped. “What's the point of dealing with you as a Caretaker if you can't even keep my ship secure?”
The beautiful woman gave him a bemused look. “The ship is still secure. She requested to speak with you now that the battle's over.”
And Ali hadn't bothered to clear it with him first, or even mention what she was doing? If she kept throwing mud on his position of authority on this ship, they were going to have a real problem sooner, rather than later.
But now wasn't the time to make an issue of it, while the facilitator was an unwanted presence on his bridge. “Elyssa,” he said coolly. “Remember when I talked about picking fights suddenly not seeming like such a good idea, when you find yourself losing?”
“I don't know what you did to my Pilot AIs, Thorne,” she said through gritted teeth. “But you can be sure, I'm going to find out.”
Not likely. He somehow had the feeling HAE's resources were far more extensive than whatever Elyssa could throw at this; if she pushed too hard, she might find herself regretting picking that fight, too.
But given the fact that she'd just tried to kill him, he'd leave her to that unpleasant surprise. “Best of luck. In the meantime, I hope you got the message not to mess with me.”
“You think beating my ships is the end of this?” the severe woman spat. “Your problems have just begun. How do you think I found you?”
“I don't know how,” Aiden admitted. “But I'll find out whatever method you used, and prevent you from continuing to do so.”
Elyssa laughed. “You think I was the one who tracked you?” She sneered at him. “No, I just glommed onto it and took advantage of the opportunity. Someone else has found you, and I'll give you one guess who . . . if my reinforcements don't reach you in time to finish the job, they will.”
She leaned back in her chair, eyes shining with hate and triumph. “Have fun with that.”
Her image disappeared from the display.
Chapter Fifteen
Vindication
Aiden's ship had taken serious damage, worse than it had suffered in years. Even so, all things considered it could've been much worse; first and most importantly, the main systems were miraculously mostly intact.
Working with Ali, Barix was able to calculate a nice, far jump not long after the second transport jumped away, and they all breathed a quick sigh of relief at being at least temporarily out of danger.
Elyssa might find them again quickly, depending on the means she'd used to find them before, and her cryptic words about the Movement being able to track them had Aiden's skin crawling. But he intended to make the most of this reprieve.
First off, the Fixes were hard at work repairing the most critical damage to the Last Stand's systems, starting with the shields. For most of the hull breaches they'd have to make do with simple patches for now, as well as decontamination scrubs to clear away the residual radiation. And assuming they survived the next few hours, none of them would be enjoying full immersion dives any time soon.
While the combat androids were busy with that, Aiden pulled his crew into the bridge for a little chat about the real problem they faced. Something far more serious than a few fried circuits or gaping holes in the ship's hull.
“There are only a few possibilities for how we could be ambushed out here in the middle of nowhere, in the process of setting up our own ambush,” he began grimly.
“Magic?” Belix asked, somehow managing to find some sarcasm in spite of their situation.
He ignored her. “The first would be if the Ishivi deliberately fed the route of their Harvester ship to HAE, setting a trap for the Caretakers, and we're the ones who blundered into it.” He shot a cold look Ali's way. “Or they deliberately sent us into it to spare their own resources.”
Before the AI could protest, he dashed his own theory. “But that scenario would require the Ishivi to actually know the threat HAE poses, when everyone in the Movement and their allies seem convinced the corporation is about to be wiped out. Sharp as the Ishivi are, that doesn't seem likely. Especially since if they did know about the Caretakers, they'd be throwing everything into tracking down and destroying those planet eaters and giant refineries and shipyards, not setting up small ambushes on comparatively minor assets to whittle down an enemy that can reproduce exponentially.”
He
