Aneka Jansen 7: Hope (17 page)

‘I may be able to resolve more with further observations,’ Gwy said, ‘but atmospheric interference makes that difficult.’

‘Do what you can. I’m going to lie here and consider tactics. This has to be doable with a bit of thought.’

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Aneka pushed off from Gwy’s airlock and glided through empty space towards the much larger bulk of the tanker.

‘I am really starting to feel like déjà vu is getting a little common around here.’

‘We do seem to be repeating ourselves,’ Al replied, ‘but the plan is sound and we will need to wait several days to try again, and the trajectory may not be as favourable then.’

‘I know.’ Her hands and feet met with the hull of the ship and she began making her way to the airlock close by. ‘You’ll get the door?’

‘Of course. Gwy is reporting a three-man crew, all on the flight deck. There are no indications of them noticing our arrival.’

‘I kind of doubt their sensors are designed to spot a single person appearing out of nowhere, even if we aren’t cloaked. And I don’t think we need to worry about them spotting us. Let’s set Racine for stun rounds. I’ve no wish to make the casualty figures on this higher than necessary.’

‘It seems unlikely that we will have that luxury on the surface.’

‘I know. That’s why not killing these three is going to make me feel a little better. Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few heads, but still…’

‘Shouldn’t that be “eggs?”’

‘An egg by any other name…’

As the airlock cycled, Aneka took a canister from her belt and primed it before slipping Racine from her holster and checking the load. The gas was supposed to render the average humanoid unconscious in seconds, but you could never tell, especially when dealing with engineered subspecies.

‘There is still no indication that they have noticed our entrance,’ Al commented. ‘I have tapped their security system and silenced it, just in case. The flight deck is forward approximately eighty metres. Turn left out of the airlock.’

‘Is the flight deck door locked?’

‘Not now, no.’

‘Huh, of course. Start uploading our new flight instructions. We might as well get things moving.’

‘We do have plenty of time. Once set, the vessel will take some ten hours before reaching its target.’

‘Good point. That’s going to be a boring wait. Okay, wind down the air circulation in the cockpit. Hopefully if you take it down slowly they won’t even notice.’

A minute later, as Aneka set the gas canister and opened the door, Al said, ‘Air circulation ceased.’ Aneka took in the three men starting to turn towards the door, threw the fuming canister in and closed the door again.

‘Thirty seconds, you think?’

‘That should be plenty of time.’

‘And you did remember to lock out their communications?’

‘I did, but they are out of sight of any station anyway.’

‘Which is why we’re hitting them here. You might as well start that upload now.’

‘It’s on its way. I have also requested that Gwy begins docking procedures.’

Aneka checked the time. Fifteen seconds or so. ‘Right. Then we load these guys aboard Gwy, sedated, set a full-power burn, shut everything down and wait for it to hit the sensor station. We have a ten-thousand-tonne missile to take out our observation problem and they’ll be running around like hyperactive rabbits trying to figure out what happened.’

‘As I said, it’s a good plan. Assuming it works.’

‘Plans always work as planned, until they don’t.’

~~~

‘This plan appears to be going to plan,’ Al said.

‘Now you’ve gone and jinxed it. How long until impact?’

‘Atmospheric interference is making detection of the tanker difficult,’ Gwy replied. ‘Assuming that there have been no deviations during the slingshot, thirty-eight seconds.’

‘Okay. Cassandra? Are you ready?’

‘Engines are primed,’ Cassandra said from the flight deck. ‘Course is laid in and we are both prepared for the necessary rapid manoeuvring required.’

‘Good. Just like we tried in the simulation. Let Gwy handle the details and you make sure we’re not getting out of bounds. We want to stay as low as possible until the last minute.’

‘I know. Al, you be careful with that avatar. We can’t replace it out here and I’m probably going to need some hugs after this is over.’

‘I shall endeavour to return without so much as a bullet hole,’ Al replied, smiling. He was busy checking over the heavy machine gun he was going to be carrying. It was a devastating weapon and Aneka hoped it was going to see little use. The plan was going far too well for that, however.

‘Sensor scans have ceased,’ Gwy announced. ‘I am registering a fairly large explosion in high orbit.’

‘Let’s move it,’ Aneka ordered.

The acceleration was barely perceptible, and it cut off entirely after a couple of seconds as they reached the maximum safe velocity Gwy could reach and maintain sufficient control in the narrow confines of the valley they were flying through. It seemed to take far too long to reach the far end, but Aneka’s chronometer told her it was just over ninety seconds.

‘Perimeter wall in sight,’ Cassandra announced.

‘Firing main canon,’ Gwy added.

‘Drop in ten seconds.’ The outer door of the airlock opened, the view outside swinging violently around as Cassandra turned the ship side-on to the hole in the thick wall around the base. Debris was still falling and the noise of wind and echoing detonation was loud.

‘Go,’ Aneka said, jumping clear of the ship. She waited for Al to join her before adding, ‘All right, clear the area, dump those men and sweep back. Hold for our call.’

‘Understood,’ Cassandra responded. ‘Be careful.’

‘Always.’ Aneka began running for the breach, Al on her heels. They were not operating the software War had built for a full fireteam, but Al’s ability to coordinate his avatar with Aneka was pretty amazing anyway, given that he operated the remote drone from within her.

There were men running from the building, but Aneka launched a plasma grenade round into them, and Al’s gun finished off what remained standing. Another plasma round demolished the entrance they had come through and the pair ran for the corridor within.

‘Their response time is quite good,’ Al commented.

‘They were possibly put on alert when the station was taken out. We need to know where we’re going. Have you got time to hack their network.’

‘Probably, but Gwy’s telemetry as we approached put the heaviest concentration of electrical activity fifty metres ahead and to the right.’

More guards appeared and Racine peppered them with hypervelocity needles. ‘Place to start then. If that’s not it, it may give us a spot to hole up and search from.’

‘A working plan. I am having some trouble with their network as the encryption is quite good.’

‘Will you be able to work the door?’

‘Unknown.’

They turned a corner and three more guards died in a burst of automatic fire. They had been standing in front of a heavy-looking door. ‘Well, I hope so, because I think we’d bring the building down trying to blast through that.’

Al stooped beside one of the bodies and came up holding a plastic card. ‘Thankfully we may not need to find out.’ He swiped the card over a reader set beside the door and it levered away from them revealing what looked like a large computer room beyond.

‘Can you seal it?’

‘I do not believe so.’

‘Damn.’ Slipping Racine into her holster, Aneka held out her hands. ‘Give me that canon and go plug in.’ With the gun in hand, she positioned herself beside the door and waited while Al set about connecting into the system.

Guards appeared at the end of the corridor, but after the first couple fell to a hail of needles, the remainder held back out of sight. Aneka watched, knowing that they would be bringing up heavier weapons, perhaps some form of force screen they were hoping would withstand the gun. Hurrying Al would get them nowhere, however. It was going to take as long as it took.

‘Aneka,’ Gwy’s voice came over their comms with an urgent tone, ‘I am detecting three aircraft flying in this direction.’

‘You’ve got rid of our passengers?’

‘I have. Do you wish me to engage the targets?’

‘Stay cloaked and quiet. We may need to take them out before we leave, but not yet.’

‘I have located the data we require,’ Al said. ‘Downloading to internal storage now. I estimate ninety seconds to completion.’

‘The aircraft will arrive around that time,’ Gwy responded. ‘Initial identification suggests one gunship and two troop transports.’

Aneka frowned. ‘Damn it… All right, take them out before they can put troops on the ground and prepare for evac. Al, get the bombs placed.’ The guards had to be waiting for the new troops to arrive, which was good. The issue was whether they would attempt any preparatory work before that failed to happen.

The answer came just as Al unplugged from the computers. Three smoke grenades bounced down the corridor blocking infrared reception as well as vision. ‘Hot smoke,’ Aneka said. ‘They’re expecting reinforcements. How are those aircraft, Gwy?’

‘The gunship just went down,’ Gwy replied. ‘It got a shot off, but my shields were sufficiently resilient. I am taking small arms fire.’

‘Return fire, but aim for suppression. We’ll be out shortly.’ Aneka handed the machine gun back to Al and pulled Racine. Two plasma rounds left trails in the smoke and the detonations were visible even through the thick, white fog. ‘Let’s move.’

There was no more resistance, but the air outside the building stank of ozone as Gwy’s gamma-ray laser turrets flashed out in the direction of men hiding behind whatever cover they could find. The small ship settled to the ground inside the wall and Aneka and Al ran for the opening hatch.

‘I’ll transfer the data to Gwy as soon as we get in,’ Al said as they ran. ‘There was quite a lot concerning Ella and Captain Kade. A disquieting amount, in fact.’

‘You’ve got us a location for Haven though?’

‘I am not certain, but it has to be in there. I located over twenty terabytes of data.’

‘Right. Gwy, immediate lift-off once we’re in. Get us into space and hit the warp drives as soon as possible. Once we’re out of this system we can pause and plot a proper course.’

‘Understood, Aneka. I can do that while Cassandra and Al are “hugging.”’

‘You said that with far too much sarcasm, young lady-ship.’

‘I must have been spending too much time around you.’

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‘We should arrive on the twelfth,’ Gwy said as their course through the galaxy was displayed over the cabin ceiling. Not that it made a lot of difference; they were on their way and that was what mattered.

‘Great,’ Aneka replied, looking up from the bed. ‘Hopefully we can catch up with her before she goes off somewhere else.’

‘That,’ Al said, ‘may be difficult. We have uncovered the Pinnacle’s plan and it will result in Ella and Kade heading for another target rather quickly.’

‘Should we head straight there?’

‘It is possible we may intercept them at Haven, and if not we should be able to overtake them.’

‘Okay, what’s this plan?’

‘It’s going to sound silly,’ Gwy predicted. ‘It’s really over-complicated and I’m amazed it seems to be working.’

‘They have been working on dropping hints that they will be attacking a world called Iyonvrie for some time,’ Al explained. ‘The world has effective defences and a lot of resources. They
do
actually want to capture it, but the timescales, as far as we can tell, are quite long. They have been suggesting a more immediate assault and have indicated that they are stockpiling antimatter warheads at a nearby border station. There are records suggesting that they even dropped hints about this attack in front of Ella while she was on Ariadne.’

‘I’d imagine Kade might want to stop that, and getting her hands on that kind of ordnance would be worth some risk too,’ Aneka said.

‘The Pinnacle’s psychological profile of her suggests that you are correct. They believe she has been gathering intelligence on the station and trying to keep up with news on the attack. They are now ready to spring their trap. Word has been sent that the attack is imminent, which means that Kade will need to move quickly. They knew she would be in the Ariadne system looking for information while Ella was there and ordered that all efforts be made to get the two together.’

‘Why? I don’t get that part.’

‘Because Kade’s ship has a Xinti cloak and she would be likely to notice the trap when she arrived there. They would not have time to do sufficient damage to her vessel before she could escape. So they planted a remotely triggered beacon device under Ella’s skin. A signal from the station will trigger it as soon as they exit warp, and then they lock on and open fire.’

‘But how do they know Ella will be here?’

‘They don’t, but they believe that Ella will want to see the attack stopped, as well as having other motivations to go, and they believe Kade will want Ella involved because she will be attempting to ally herself with Shadataga.’

‘Their psychological and sociometric analysis seems sound,’ Cassandra put in. ‘I am actually quite impressed with the level of detailed manipulation involved.’

‘Huh,’ Aneka grunted. ‘So if we can’t stop them, they’ll be flying right into a trap.’

‘Indeed,’ Al agreed, ‘but there is more. They are busy arranging for news of Ella’s involvement in an act of piracy to come to light. It may not have much sway back home, but it will make things harder for us among the worlds around Pinnacle space.’

‘Politics,’ Aneka growled. ‘I
hate
politics. All right, let’s stop this before it gets out of hand.’

‘I think we may be a little late for that. Something tells me that this is only going to get more complicated, and worse, before it gets better.’

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‘All right,’ Aneka said as they dropped out of warp, ‘what do we have?’

‘I have catalogued over forty energy signatures,’ Gwy said. The star field on the flight deck was suddenly decorated with markers. ‘Haven is a colony built around converted asteroids. I am gathering more detailed information as we speak, but the largest occupied rock is this one.’ One of the markers glowed brighter as she spoke and a thought from Aneka zoomed the image in to show the target in more detail.