“You think this will work on the Faiurae’s airlock?”
“One time I saw Xooth use it on a Wreechie god-vault through a meter of superheated mud. It’ll work.”
“Is that what the Faiurae used to get on board the Freya?”
“I’m not sure. They have their own tech, but, yeah, probably something similar.”
Yates followed me to the weapons locker, where I availed myself of some explosives, a pair of shard slingers, a Winton snub railgun, and some suppressor strand shells. The latter weren’t fatal, which might make what I was going to do slightly less egregious.
“I know that the Rhya won’t like this,” I said, as I gathered all the gear together and loaded it on the starhopper. “But I’m prepared to argue my case that the Faiurae initiated the aggression by attacking us first and capturing Chiraine.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about the Rhya,” Yates said.
“What do you mean?”
“You need to talk to Hap and Ana-Zhi, but they’ve been unable to raise any wardens. And the long-range scans are coming up empty. Apparently they’ve left the system.”
“That’s ridiculous. We just saw them all swarming around Roan Andessa.”
Yates couldn’t tell me any more details. I would have to track down Ana-Zhi Agrada.
“If you’re going to do this thing, you should do it now while folks are distracted,” Yates said. “Both on our side and theirs. Ana-Zhi is not going to be happy when she finds out you’ve gone rogue on her.”
“Let me deal with Ana-Zhi.”
I found her alone in the bridge, sitting with her legs up on the console. She might have been napping when I burst in.
“Hey, junior,” she said lazily. “You decide to put your big boy pants on and help us with this job?”
“What happened to the Rhya?” I demanded.
“Oh,” she said. “You heard.”
“Yates said you couldn’t hail them.”
She swung her legs down and sat upright. “Yeah, well, it might be some kind of solar activity—messing with the comm.”
“What about the long-range scans? Yates said we can’t find even a single Rhya ship.”
“I don’t know what to say. Something is going on.”
“You’re acting pretty flippant about this,” I said.
“I’m not flippant. I’m focused.”
“You don’t even give a shit,” I muttered under my breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just came here to tell you that I’m going to go along with your call. It’s what my dad would have wanted.”
She looked at me curiously. “You got that right.”
“Yates said it might be a few hours yet until the slicer pinpoints the location of the Kryrk. I’ll be in my cabin resting up. You just tell me what you need me to do.”
She nodded. “It’ll probably be just me, Hap, and Yates going in, but we’ll need some tactical support. I’ll come get you when we’re ready for the briefing.”
Obviously I didn’t return to my cabin. I took a roundabout route through the engineering bay to let Yates know I was making my move.
“Good luck, Jannigan.” As he clasped my hand, I saw a genuine look of concern in his eyes.
“Try to cover for me.”
After I left him, I scouted the area around the launch bay. Thankfully it was empty. I slipped into an exosuit, ran through its start-up diagnostics, and activated the ‘combat’ preset. That would configure the high-power magtouch repulsors and haptic pulse capability. I also grabbed a lightweight survival suit for Chiraine since she would have to gear up quickly for our escape—if she was still alive when I found her.
I thought about what I might do if the Faiurae had killed her. As I considered the possibility, a rage simmered deep within me. I would have to take them out. Each and every one. And screw the Rhya.
With those dark thoughts swirling around in my head, I prepped the bay doors for auto-launch and powered up the T-9 starhopper. It was time to set things right. Thankfully, the starhopper had been regularly maintained and it launched without a problem.
I got less than a thousand kilometers away from the Freya before Ana-Zhi Agrada’s voice hollered at me through my comm unit.
“What the fuck, Jannigan? What. The. Fuck?”
I didn’t even bother to respond. I just flicked off my comm and focused on the Faiurae ship ahead of me. My target was sleek and glossy, with distinctive curves that reminded me of a vintage Swallow. The ship didn’t have a lot of observation ports, so if the Faiurae weren’t actively scanning for me, I might have a chance of getting to the ship undiscovered.
Once I got within range I had to take it slow, because otherwise—cloaking or no cloaking—I’d trigger their ship’s anti-collision monitoring system. I told myself to take it easy and forced myself to do some deep breathing to calm my thundering heart.
I managed to execute a gentle drift up against their hull, matching their velocity so as not to alert their sensor. Then I used the grappling harpoon to anchor the starhopper to the Faiurae ship right at the lower-level airlock. After double checking my weapons and gear, I launched myself towards the hatch.
I had done plenty of zero-g space training and acrobatics, but I still felt like barfing in my exosuit. It must have been the fear affecting me. Which was fine. I could use all the cortisol and adrenaline I could get.
With a clunk I grasped onto the hatch and withdrew Xooth’s donokkal. I almost dropped the cylinder, but finally managed to get it into position and then stabbed the fluted end onto the hatch’s locking mechanism.
Thank Dynark that the old Plargondian tech came through for me. Within seconds I was pushing my way through the airlock and into the ship proper.
The corridors and doorways were sized for Faiurae, not humans, so I felt like a little kid exploring a starship for the very first time. But then my training—all the sim-tests and scenarios and war games—kicked in. Cautiously I snuck across what appeared to be a lower-level cargo hold and passed through a doorway on to
