Chains of Redemption

Chains of Redemption
by
Selina Rosen

Table of Contents

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Chains of Redemption:
Copyright ©2004 Selina Rosen.
A Baen Ebook
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com
Cover art by Charles Keegan
ISBN 10: 1-5922-2000-2
ISBN 13: 978-1-5922-2000-7
First ebook, March 2008
Electronic version by WebWrights
www.webwrights.com

 

RJ had been prepared for instant retaliation. It was the reason she had immediately left Beta 4 space and headed once again for the Argy home world of Deakard. She had hoped that the speed of their departure coupled with their destination would throw the Reliance off. It had apparently worked at first. They'd traveled in hyperspace for two weeks without detecting any other ships. They'd made initial contact with the Argy and they seemed anxious to meet with them and discuss some sort of alliance.

It looked like they were going to make it to Deakard this time without a hitch.

Of course one of the problems with riding the hyperspacial spaceways was that there were just so many directions you could go. Apparently the Reliance had kept searching till they'd figured out which way RJ and her crew had gone, and then they'd sent ships in pursuit.

"Someone up there does not want us to get to Deakard," Topaz said with a nervous laugh as he looked over RJ's shoulder at the screens, which clearly showed that they had three fully loaded cruisers and one carrier closing on them fast. "Maybe they aren't after us. Maybe they don't even see us. After all, we are headed for Deakard, maybe they're just out here looking for Argy ships."

"Yeah . . . and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt!" Levits screamed from where he sat at the ship's controls.

"It's immaterial either way," RJ said. "Even if they weren't actually looking for us, they've found us now, and you can bet your sweet ass they aren't going to just turn around and go home or scoot around us."

"You think I have a sweet ass?" Topaz asked with a smile.

"Oh, don't even start your crazy assed shit now, old man!" Levits hissed.

"Can we go any faster? Can we outrun them?" Topaz asked.

"How freaking stupid do you think I am?" Levits yelled back. "I jacked the speed up to maximum the minute the ship warned us about the bastards. This is it. We're in a freaking troop carrier; they're in fully loaded cruisers. We might be able to lose the carrier, but not those cruisers. We can't outrun them, and we sure as hell can't outgun them. We're screwed!"

RJ ran her hands down her face and flopped into her seat with a sigh. "We've got hundreds of uniforms and enough food to literally feed a battalion, but no real speed and minimal weapons."

"Well, I think you'd better come up with something a little more productive than slinging bad clothing and K-rations at them. What do we do, RJ?" Levits asked. "Come on, we're going to be in range in less than four clicks."

"You're the freaking pilot!" RJ bellowed. "What do
you
think we should do?"

"Don't make me say it," Levits said. "It's dangerous, and completely insane."

"As dangerous as three fully loaded cruisers and a carrier loaded with fighters?" RJ asked. "You said it yourself, we can't outrun them, and we sure as hell can't outgun them in a firefight, even with me in control of the weapons."

"You have a point." Levits started making the necessary corrections to their navigational system, and the ship immediately started sounding the warning siren, although it was hard to say whether it was doing this because they were now in range of the closest cruiser's weapons or because of what Levits was doing. "Damn! We're in range!"

"Then so are they." RJ moved to the weapons console and sat down as they took a hit that rocked the whole ship. "Damn! That was a Mega Cannon 5000. You better get us out of here quick, Levits. Our shields won't hold."

Topaz laughed and said in an accent neither of them had ever heard before, "The shields won't hold, Captain, she's gonna blow!"

They ignored him, because after all, he was completely insane.

RJ locked on target and fired, gratified to see the cruiser she had targeted lurch under impact. Of course their shields were stronger, and she wasn't likely to even pierce their hull before they totally obliterated their ship. For generations scientists had argued that you couldn't have a battle in Hyperspace; in that moment RJ wished they had been right. Simple fact was—in all things—when push came to shove you couldn't really know what was or was not possible until someone had tried it. Battles had been fought in hyperspace as long as RJ could remember.

They took another hit. "Dammit, Levits! Sometime this week!" RJ ordered.

"Quit screaming at me, I'm going as fast as I can. Screaming at me isn't helping. Freaking bitch." He mumbled the last part as he worked the console in front of him. "You don't understand. The ship's computer has been expressly programmed
not
to do what we're trying to make her do."

Topaz saw Poley sit down in his chair and put his belt on, a testament to the peril that they were obviously all in. Topaz quickly ran to a seat and belted himself in, too. "Just where the hell are we going?"

"Out of hyperspace into real space," Poley answered.

"Don't you need a gate for that—a destination, some knowledge of where you are in relation to where you'll be?"

"Yes, that would be nice," RJ said.

"I think I'd rather take our chances with the Reliance if we happen to be voting now." As Topaz spoke, the ship took another hit—this one worse than the first two. "On second thought . . . Levits, get us the hell out of here!"

"Hold onto your seats," Levits said, strapping himself in. He looked over at RJ."RJ?"

"Yes!" she said turning to face him, her face a mask of barely disguised rage.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," she answered.

"Oh my God! We're all going to die!" Topaz screamed, grabbing the arms of his chair in a death grip.

The ship's engines whined, the lights dimmed, then they were seemingly spit into real space, and all was still.

Topaz ran his hands over his body, checking his package twice just to be sure. He looked up at Poley and smiled. "I'm alive! I'm alive!"

"Oh joy," Levits said sarcastically. He looked at RJ and smiled. She smiled back.

"What's to stop them from following us?" Topaz asked.

"They can jump out of the hyperspace stream, but they wouldn't likely wind up in this part of space," Poley answered.

Topaz unbuckled himself and stood up, rubbing his hands on his pants and walking to the viewport as the blast door was opening. "So . . . where are we?"

"We could be damn near anywhere. See, when you're in hyperspace you basically aren't anywhere till you get to a jumpgate. What happens when you jump from nowhere to somewhere with no destination? You could wind up anywhere," RJ said as she unbuckled herself, stood up and walked towards the navigational console, stopping along the way just long enough to kiss the top of Levits' head. "Or we could be nowhere," she said, sitting at the navigational console.

"Say what?" Topaz asked.

"Exactly," RJ said, and started working the console in front of her.

Levits was watching her. He didn't like the look on her face. "What's wrong, where are we? Deep in Reliance territory? Close to a base? What?"

RJ looked out the viewscreen and frowned. She rubbed her hand down her face.

"What?" Topaz and Levits both demanded.

She sighed as she read the screen in front of her. "No data, location unknown."

"What!" they demanded.

"It would appear that we have flown into uncharted space. The ship's computer has no idea where we are, and neither do I."

"Cool!" Topaz said rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "We are boldly going where no man has gone before."

"Cool!
Cool!
" Levits damn near gave himself whiplash trying to jump out of his seat without unbuckling. He undid the buckle and jumped to his feet, although the motion had lost all its impact by then. "Don't you know what this means, old man? We aren't going to Argy! In a few more months we won't be going anywhere because we'll be out of fuel. The scoops will only give us so much energy—not enough to sustain a ship this large without additional fuel, and since we are in uncharted space I don't know where we might find any!
Uncharted
, as in without charts. And I don't see any big flashing signs that say 'Fun, Food and Fuel, Humans Welcome,' do you? If we don't find a planet with a breathable atmosphere and edible food, or run into a radiation storm, our ship will run out of fuel, we'll run out of food, we'll run out of air, and we'll all, even you old man, die in the vacuum of space!!!"

"I won't die," Poley assured them.

"That's very comforting, thank you Poley!" Levits screamed. "The robot will survive. How nice."

"No, because I would miss all of you," he said.

"We'll find a planet. That's all. We'll keep searching till the ship finds something familiar," RJ said. "We might not be all that far from charted space. It could just be that we're looking at it from an angle that the ship's computer doesn't recognize."

"Not that far! RJ, we're talking about light years. The best this ship can do without a jumpgate, out of hyperspace, is warp one. At that speed even if the fuel and food would last we would all likely be dust before we reached a habitable destination." He saw Poley start to speak and pointed a finger at him. "All right,
I'd
be dust before we found anything close to an Earth-type planet. Do you have any idea what the odds are?" Before Poley could pop off with a mathematical answer, Levits glared at him. "Don't you dare spit out a number, Tin Pants," he said shaking his finger at him. "First our food supply's going to run out, and then our fuel supply's going to be exhausted. Won't that be fun, old man?"

"You're always so negative, Levits. It's not healthy. You're starting to get frown lines," Topaz said.

Frown lines or not, Levits was right, there was little reason for optimism. RJ got up from the navigational console. "Poley, come over here and chart this section of space. Find us a suitable planet. See if you can find our space, you know, where we belong."

Poley nodded, unbuckled himself, got up and walked to the console. "Do you want to know the number?" he whispered in her ear.

"Not really, Poley, but thank you," RJ said with a smile.

Poley nodded and sat down at the console. His fingers flew across the keys too fast for the human eye to actually see.

"We got away from the Reliance, Levits," RJ said, addressing the worried look on his face. "At the very worst, we have bought ourselves a little more time. Let's not waste that."

He nodded, forcing a smile. She took his hand and they left the bridge together.