Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (28 page)

"Well, if it's all the same to you,
as of today I'm going to just imagine we trimmed those branches off the old
family tree, ok?"         

"I understand," replied Echo
with a smile.  He finished his work at the big display and took a few steps
over to Loren, extending his hand for Loren to shake, which he did.  "It
was a genuine pleasure getting to know you, Loren.  I rarely get to know the
humans I observe and work with.  You've shown me many things."

Loren shook firmly and waited for Echo to
let go.  He suffered from a rare case of not knowing what to say; he'd never
met anyone quite like Echo, and doubted he ever would again.             

"Thank you," Loren said
earnestly as Echo started to turn away.

Echo nodded and walked to a door just a
few steps away from the one to the loading dock, then stopped. 

"Loren," he began haltingly,
"do you believe in an afterlife?"

Loren was caught completely off guard by
the question and stammered a bit before he could decide how to respond. 
"I like to think there is," he started.  "I'm not sure what I
really believe, though.  So many religions, beliefs, ideals out there, but
there's usually a common theme among them all.  Live your live well, be proud
of what you do, and be ready to account for your actions when it's all over.  I
figure there's probably a higher power or plane out there, and when my days
here are done hopefully I'll get a chance to explain what I've been up to.  Why
do you ask?"

Echo's response was interrupted by a
muffled crashing noise far down the hallway.  They both knew what it was: the
Primans had finally climbed down to this level, despite the lift being unable
to move up to get them.

"Do you think my consciousness, my
soul as you'd call it, will survive?  I know I'm a machine, of course, but do
you think a soul is a strictly biological right?  Might I somehow live
on?"

"Now that, my friend," Loren
admitted, "is a question for the ages.  If it's really about awareness,
having a soul as we’d call it, then I'd say you have a good shot."

"That's a good hope to cling
to," Echo said solemnly.  "I just don't want to disappear forever
when I die.  Black, nothing, poof, I'm gone and won't even know it because
everything about me will be powered down."

"You won't be gone, Echo,"
Loren assured him.  "Your people and now me will remember you.  Folks will
talk about what you accomplished; I'll make sure of that.  And for what it's
worth, if there's an afterlife and they let me in one day which will hopefully
be many years from now, I'll look you up.  Sound good?"

"Thank you," Echo replied, then
pressed his lips together in determination and disappeared through the door and
into the dark room beyond.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

Web only had to wait a split second
before he saw Halley's shape emerge from the shadows near the entrance to the
garage.

"What magnitude of problem are we
talking about?" she asked in a businesslike manner, "Because I have
one in here as well.  All these vehicles are Priman military and have some sort
of lockout on them.  I have no idea where to begin with getting one unlocked
and running."

"My problem is so much worse than
yours," Web bragged.  "There are a dozen or more Primans on the other
side of that door who are very angry with us."

"Then let's get the hell out of
here," she said as Web began jogging towards her.  He got halfway there
before the door exploded out into the motor pool garage, some sort of breaching
charge throwing it clear of the doorway in an ear-splitting bang and a cloud of
debris.

A barrage of blaster bolts immediately
poured through the doorway.  Apparently the Primans were less concerned with
collateral damage than in stopping Web.

Web and Halley were standing between two
rows of low-slung hovercars as the air was filled with charged energy bolts. 
They chopped up the vehicles, punching holes in the doors, panels, shattering
window glass and throwing shrapnel up in the air.

The pair hit the ground between the
vehicles and sat with their backs to the door of one car.

"We need to get the hell out of
here!" Web stated the obvious.  "Do you have a copy of the ring data
on you?"

"Yeah," Halley responded with a
grimace as she shifted uncomfortably.

"We may need to ditch that in case
they catch up to us."

"Sure," she replied, her breath
catching in her throat.

"What's up?" he started to ask,
then looked at her uniform.  An ugly, ragged scorch mark blackened the side of
her chest under her left arm.  Through the torn and darkened material, he saw
the uniform was also damp with blood. 

"Oh sheifah," he said, the
closest thing he'd ever admit to panic welling into him.  "Are you
ok?"

"I'm not actually dead yet,"
she said through gritted teeth as more glass rained down on them, "but I
could use a few minutes to heal up a bit."  Though she'd never told him as
such, he knew enough about her SAR training and more importantly enhancements
that she could affect some first aid using her nanites.

"We don't have a few minutes,"
Web cautioned.  "You're going to need some time to heal before you can
even move."  His eyes had been roaming the garage as he talked, but
suddenly he snapped his head around to look at her.  "I'll lead them out
of here.  You stay put and hide and let them go right by you."

"Not a chance, you idiot," she
said harshly.  "You're not going to risk yourself for me."

"No, it makes sense," Web
reasoned.  "They only know about me, all by my lonesome, and that's what
they'll be looking for.  I'll take them out of here and we'll meet up at our
planned rendezvous point."

"That's crazy," Halley replied,
but the realization that his logic bore true welled to the surface.  She pushed
it down hard.  Another SAR operative making the offer would be normal, expected
even.  Not Web; he didn't need to do this, nor should he.  This was her mission,
her life to risk, and she realized at that instant that she'd rather die
herself than outlive him.

Web just rolled his eyes, grabbed
Halley's blaster and reached over the hood of the hovercar they were hiding
behind.  With a gun in each hand, he triggered off a dozen rounds from each
weapon towards the doorway in order to buy him a minute.

"Ok Halley," Web said easily,
"why don't you just get up and I'll carry you."

"You'll be too slow," she
growled.  "They'd catch you before you got a block."

"Then jog with me."  An
explosion of concrete shards dropped a pile of debris on the roof of the
hovercar next to them.

"I can barely sit upright!" she
yelled, which caused a jagged bolt of pain to shoot up her side and silenced
her argument.

Web ducked down next to her again, set
one gun on the ground, leaned in close and touched the side of her face with
his palm.  "Halley, I'll be fine.  Besides, if I don't do this, you'll be
captured for sure.  I'll take my chances and go.  And if things don't go my
way, I know you'll bail me out."

He gave her his most reassuring smile. 
She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him towards her and kissed him. 
For a fraction of a second, the war for them disappeared.  The kiss said
everything they didn't have time to say to each other; all the emotions they
felt were passed between them in that second.  It didn't hurt that it gave
Halley the opportunity to pass some nanites over to him with specific
instructions, either.

"Be careful, Web," she said. 
"I need you to be ok."

"See you soon," he replied, and
slid her gun back to her.  He raised his arm over the hood of the hovercar and
triggered another round of blasts until the power cell in the blaster was
empty.  Dropping into a crouch, he hit the ejector and the dead cell dropped
out from under the slide, leaving the small hatch open for him to insert his
only spare.

He gave her a wink and then ran down the
row of cars, firing a few blasts before hitting the ground and rolling out of
the open garage bay doors and into the alley.  Halley knew he'd stand a good
chance of a quick escape with the fire, smoke and chaos of their distraction
going on outside, but her stomach burned with worry.  This wasn't his job; he
was a pilot, not a covert operative.  But she knew he'd do what it took, both
for the Confederation and for her.  And she loved him for it.  She just hoped
she'd get to tell him that soon enough.

For the time being, she grabbed her
blaster and rolled under the hovercar behind them, wincing but determined not
to make a noise and ruin the chance Web had given her, then crawled and rolled
across one more row and hid under the last vehicle against the garage wall,
shrouded in shadows and her own gloomy cloud.  The data she carried would see
the light of day if she had to kill every Priman on the planet to do so.

Loren jumped into the passenger
compartment of the small but expensive shuttle Merritt and Cory had found.  It
had a cockpit for two, then a plush cabin with seats for six.  It was just big
enough to have hyperdrive engines, though as was typical of executive
transport, it didn't have incredible range and was instead meant to quickly get
important or wealthy people from one system to the next.

He strapped in and Cory already had the
ship floating off the deck, rotating in place as she turned for the hangar
doors.  The thrust pushed Loren back in his seat as they shot out of the place,
the jet blast from the engines knocking all sorts of things loose in the hangar
and even pushing a small racing hovercar into the vehicle next to it.

"Good thing the owner's not
home," Merritt said as he leaned over to put his eyes up against the
windows to see the mansion from height.

"I hope he has good insurance,"
Loren replied.  He too was turned back, looking at the mansion and wondering if
Echo was going to be successful.  The AI had said the process would only take a
minute, but it had been at least that long since he'd entered the hangar and
secured the hatch behind him before heading for the shuttle.  He hoped the
Primans hadn't gotten to Echo first.

Loren's worries were interrupted by a
flash where the huge home had been which temporarily blinded him.  There was no
sound; the shuttle was supersonic by now and would outrun the noise of the
explosion, but as soon as the spots were gone from his vision Loren took
another look and saw a crater in the place where the mansion had been.  Echo
had been successful.  Loren didn't know whether he was relieved or upset. 
Maybe he wouldn't ever decide.

"Inbound target from the surface, Captain,"
Elco heard Lieutenant Caho call out from behind him.

"IFF?" he asked, hoping the
ship was sending some sort of ID tag.

"No, but there's a new comm request
on a Confed navy frequency coming in."

"On the big screen, please,"
Captain Elco replied, then turned to look at the main screen on the forward
bulkhead, staring through the tiny blips in the 3D holo field between himself
and the display.

Merritt's face appeared on the screen,
though Elco could see another person's shoulder next to him.  "Captain,"
Merritt began, "Commander Stone says the mission is over.  We can't
elaborate on this channel, but he says there's nothing left for either side
down there.  In the process, however, I think we stirred up the Primans pretty
well."

"Looks like it," Elco replied
thoughtfully.  "They evacuated their embassy an hour ago and with the
exception of the forces they landed by your originating position, it seems
their crew is back aboard.  Get back here as fast as you can; I have a feeling
we'll need to be leaving quickly."

"Yes, Captain," Merritt
replied, then cut the link.  Elco watched the blip representing their ship as
it arced up away from the planet amidst a flurry of angry comm transmissions
from Faarian traffic control that were noted as a data tag floating alongside
the tiny ship in the holo field.

"Status on the Priman cruiser?"
Elco asked Caho.

"Drives are powered," she
began, studying her board intently, "and I'll bet a week's ration bars
their weapons are online."

"Wonderful," Elco muttered.  He
was waiting on Garrett Drayven's communication that help was about to arrive. 
According to their follow-up comm messages, Garrett was supposed to signal when
their support was about to show up.  So far, nothing, and now the Priman
cruiser seemed to be getting ready to bring the fight back to Avenger.

"Status of the Faarian navy?"
Elco asked, not really expecting an uplifting answer.

"They've pulled back from their
normal orbit," came the reply from the ops console next to the helmsman. 
"Normally they'd cross through our area in a few minutes, but it seems
like everyone is giving us room."

"So apparently they think staying
neutral will help," Elco mused.  "They'll find out the hard way that
it won't, but that's not going to do us any good today."  He turned to the
weapons station at bridge aft.  "Shields online.  How about weapons?"

"Starboard laser batteries
operational," the tech began, "and aft torpedo launchers with one
volley, no reloads."

"We certainly have our work cut out
for us," Elco admitted.

"Captain!" Lieutenant Caho
called.  "Inbound hyper signatures.  Reversion in three seconds."

Elco's spirits jumped.  Garrett's
promised reinforcements were here!

With a flicker of pseudomotion, two
Priman cruisers appeared to starboard of Avenger, putting enemies to each side
of her, with the planet behind and open space ahead.

Elco's face became grim.  They meant to
steer his ship away from the planet and cut her to pieces before she could get
far enough away from the gravity well to escape.

"More inbound," Caho reported
again. 

This time, two more Priman cruisers
appeared outbound from Avenger, effectively cutting her off from any escape. 
Elco passed from acceptance to resignation of their fate.  They wouldn't make
it easy for the Primans, at least.

"Helm, plot a course toward the lead
cruiser, the one that all the surface-bound shuttles were dispatched from. 
I'll assume their division commander is on that one.  If nothing else, they're
going to share our fate."

"Aye, sir," came the steady
reply.  Elco knew these people would fight to the end, and fight well, and
their attitudes were completely professional and capable despite what they
might have been feeling about their fates.  He just hated giving an order that
seemed an admission of defeat.

"More inbound signatures," Caho
said yet again, her voice losing most of its regular pep.  She sounded as weary
as Elco felt.  "Hang on," she said, worry creeping into her voice. 
"Whoa, this is going to be close!"  She involuntarily cringed and
scrunched down in her chair, gripping the edge of her console.

Elco was about to give a
brace-for-collision order but there was no time; the newest arrival was upon
them and automatic collision alerts rang harshly through Avenger's bridge and
corridors.

He looked out into the space ahead of
them on the camera view of the main viewscreen and at the same time saw a new
blip appear in the holo field.

In a burst of light as the ship dropped
out of hyperspace, a Starshaker class battleship materialized right in front of
Avenger, placing herself as a large and angry shield between the stricken ship
and the two starboard Priman cruisers.  The battleship seemed to shift back and
forth ever so slightly as the effects of faster-than-light travel dissipated
and she matched velocities with Avenger.

The Friend Or Foe transponder showed it
as CSS Majestic, but that threw Captain Elco for a minute.  Majestic had been
decommissioned after the Battle of Lemuria, the ship too much of a wreck to
salvage.  Captain Montari had been heartbroken to lose his ship to the
breakers, and Elco wondered what the meaning was behind it.