Crossways (67 page)

“We're her crew. She doesn't belong to us,” Grigor explained. “But we get to call her home.”

“All of us? You're not leaving us in school here?” Donna asked.

Grigor looked to Ben.

“That depends on the run,” Ben said. “There might be some trips that are . . . less appropriate.”

“You mean smuggling,” Donna said.

Ben held out his hand, palm down and waggled it. “Free trade. It's up to your parents, but your apartment in Blue Seven is still yours, so you have a choice.”

“But we can come on the shakedown run, right?” Vel said, his eyes dark and wide.

His sister nudged him. “Stop putting on the doe eyes, Vel, or you'll get yourself grounded for being impossibly cute.”

Ben laughed. “Yes, you can both come if your parents want you to, as long as you sit quiet and do as you're told.”

“We know the routine,” Donna said, older than her brother by about five years and wiser by five decades.

“Yes, okay. We'll only be out there for three or four hours,” Alia said. “We just need to check out the way she handles and the new jump-drive retrofit.”

Ben settled into the spare bucket seat on the flight deck and the children strapped themselves into the crew seats while Alia took the nav chair and Grigor the pilot's couch, resting both hands on the control panels.

“Easy. Easy.” Grigor spoke softly to himself as he negotiated Port 22's air lock and out into space.

The comm crackled into life. “Crossways Control to
Bellatkin
, you are cleared to proceed and reminded that jumps to foldspace within a hundred klicks of Crossways are strictly forbidden.”

“
Bellatkin
to Crossways Control. Wouldn't dream of it.”

“Good to hear,
Bellatkin
, but I believe you have Ben Benjamin on board.”

“Fair point, Crossways,” Ben said. “But I've only done it in an emergency. Besides, I'm in the passenger seat, today.”

The comm crackled and Vel laughed until his sister gave him another sharp dig in the ribs.

Ben sighed. “She's all yours, folks. Let's see what she can do.”

At exactly the hundred-klick mark, Alia and Grigor linked telepathically and the
Bellatkin
dipped into the Folds and out again, still close enough to see Crossways as a dot in the distance. Grigor experimented with the maneuvering thrusters and tried various seat positions, then flying both with and without internal gravity.

“One more jump,” Alia said. “I want to do another quick bodkin jump, in and out, this time to ten thousand clicks distant from the station.”

Once more they connected mind-to-mind and the
Bellatkin
transitioned smoothly into foldspace and out again.

“Sweet,” Alia said. “Oh, shit!”

On the forward screen, upside down to their orientation,
a whole battle fleet hung in space. Two huge Monitor battlewagons flanked ships from Alphacorp, Eastin-Heigle, Arquavisa, Ramsay-Shorre, and Rodontee. The Sterritt Corporation was the only one of the megacorps without representation. Behind them a gate that should not exist flashed as it spat out a cruiser decked out with an Alphacorp insignia.

“I think the phrase you're looking for is ‘Let's get out of here!'” Ben said as he began to count ships.

The Kazans linked again. As the three leading ships fired missiles, they shivered into foldspace sideways.

“Was that a whole fleet?” Vel asked.

“Shh, not while they're concentrating,” Donna said. She reached over and took hold of Vel's hand, the only sign of tension being her white knuckles as she squeezed his fingers.

“Blow the rules, take us right up to the front door,” Ben said.

“Your ship, your rules,” Alia said, and popped them into realspace barely ten klicks from Crossways.

“Crossways Control to
Bellatkin
. I told you—”

“Crossways Control, there's an Alphacorp fleet ten thousand clicks from here and heading this way,” Ben said. “Emergency enough?”

*S
CRAMBLE
SOLAR WIND
,*
BEN SAID AS HE ran down the
Bellatkin
ramp.
*We need to destroy that gate before any more of the bastards get through.*

Cara brought Mother Ramona into the link.

*I'm here with Garrick,*
Mother Ramona said.
*What have you got for us?*

*A combined fleet, backed up by two Monitor battlewagons,
* Ben said.
*Thirty ships that I saw, but more still coming through.*

*How the hell did they—*

*They built a gate, ten thousand klicks out. They've been planning this for months.*

*How long have we got? Time to bring in reinforcements from Olyanda?*

*Hours at most now that they know we've seen them. The jumpships are the only ones that could make it in time, and they're all here anyway. First things first. Their gate needs to be destroyed and ours taken offline.*

*We can take ours offline from here.*

*Do it.*

*And theirs?*

*Can you lend me three hornets?*

*Of course.*

Ben turned to the Kazans. “I want you to take one hornet in each of your cargo holds, get them as close to that gate as you can, drop them and hop straight back into the Folds. Wait until you see the gate go down, then return for a pickup. Take as few risks as possible.”

Alia and Grigor hugged their children and pushed them away. “Go straight back to Blue Seven and stay there unless you get specific safety instructions,” Alia said.

“What about you?” Vel asked.

“We'll be busy.”

“What can you do? You can't fight a fleet in a cargo carrier!” Donna's voice squeaked.

“They won't have to if they're quick,” Ben said. “Do as your parents tell you. Can you do that?”

“Yes.” Donna took hold of her brother's hand and ran against the tide of incoming crew who were dashing for Mother Ramona's and Garrick's ships while Syke's guards locked down the port and donned rebreathers and atmo suits.

“Your children are a credit to you,” Ben told the Kazans as Donna and Vel disappeared through the inner gates to the concourse.

They nodded. “If we don't come back . . .”

Ben didn't give reassurances he couldn't back up. “The Free Company will look after them as long as there is a Free Company.”

“Thank you.”

Ben briefed the three hornet pilots, all well-drilled as part of Crossways' defense fleet, then the hornets were loaded, two into the
Bellatkin
's holds, and one into the
Solar Wind
's. They launched and, within fifty klicks of Crossways, winked out into foldspace.

Solar Wind
's stripped-down crew consisted of Ben, Cara, Yan Gwenn on systems, and Gwala on tactical. Ben looked around the flight deck. “Let's make this quick or we don't stand a chance.”

“Quick as you like,” Cara said.

“Quicker the better.” Yan nodded his agreement.

Gwala just nodded.

They popped out of foldspace above the gate and Yan immediately dropped the hornet from their hold.
Bellatkin
materialized and dropped two hornets, then, while the
nearest Alphacorp ships were maneuvering into a firing position, sideslipped back into the Folds to await a recall.

Cara immediately connected the hornet pilots to Ben and to each other in a broad gestalt. The hornets, wickedly fast and with the ability to sting, immediately engaged the larger of the two gate modules, the crew and control section. Their objective was to take out the pulse-cannon and missile launchers, then to lay down covering fire for
Solar Wind
to make a run at the gate impeller.

Ben began his run from above before the nearest ships had registered
Solar Wind
's presence. A flash showed one missile launched, but Hornet One intercepted it with a sure shot. Hornet Two buzzed gate control and landed a pulse on the upper surface where there was a clear gun turret. It exploded in a cloud of debris.

A thump, felt rather than heard, meant that
Solar Wind
had been caught in the debris field. An alarm sounded.

“Small hull breach in aft section four,” Cara said. “Section sealed.”

Hornet Two wasn't so lucky. It was caught by shrapnel from its own blast and veered off tumbling end over end. Cara lost contact with the gunner and the pilot let loose a long string of colorful invective while she fought to stabilize the little craft. Hornet Three swung around and took several potshots at the lower turret.

An Arquavisa supply ship, a long series of pods attached to a spinal gantry, began to emerge from the gate.

Aware of the hornets through Cara's link, Ben spiraled toward the gate impeller. Gwala lined up a missile then followed it up with a burst of pulses. The impeller shuddered and split apart. There was no spectacular explosion, since the unit carried no atmosphere, but the gate ellipse winked out. The supply ship hadn't cleared the disk and the aft section simply vanished, leaving the forward flight deck and two and a half pods barreling forward under their own momentum, spilling crates behind like a trail of gifts from a piñata. Hornet One turned and peppered the intact pods.

*Leave it, Hornet One,*
Cara ordered.
*Don't miss the bus.*

Alerted by the destruction of the gate, the
Bellatkin
popped back into realspace and scooped up Hornet Three. Hornet One didn't break away in time. One of the Monitor
battlewagons had turned to present a battery of pulse-cannon. The hornet exploded, its cabin oxygen providing the briefest of flares.

Cara cut contact as quickly as she could, but Ben saw out of his peripheral vision that she was shaking her head to clear it. She didn't drop contact with the others, though.

*
Bellatkin
, take the one you've got and run,*
Ben ordered.
*We'll get Two.*

The second hornet had been knocked for a loop and was outside of the melee forming around the dead gate. Ben turned
Solar Wind
and dived after it with Gwala laying down covering fire behind.

*Hornet Two, can you stabilize?*
Ben asked.

*Trying my best, but I've lost a maneuvering thruster starboard.*

*Stand by.*

Ben swept
Solar Wind
kissing close and popped into foldspace, dragging Hornet Two in alongside. Then he settled the
Solar Wind
over the damaged hornet so that it passed through the outer skin. When it was firmly inside the cargo hold, he flipped out of foldspace again, emerging close in to Crossways.

“Crossways has a medical team standing by for Hornet Two,” Cara said as they swept into Port 22, running hot.

*
Bellatkin
?*
Ben asked through Cara's active link.

*Right behind you,*
Alia said.
*Thought we'd better not upset Crossways Control again.*

*Well?*
Mother Ramona asked through her Telepath, Ully.

*Mission accomplished,*
Cara said.
*The rest is up to you.*

*Get yourselves up here to the control room.*

Mother Ramona's command hit Cara as she and Ben emerged from
Solar Wind
. The maintenance crew began to crawl all over the ship to repair the hull breach as the emergency team from Dockside Medical moved in to extract the pilot and gunner from the damaged hornet in the hold. The pilot was still cursing fluently, which was a sure sign she was okay, but Cara thought the gunner was probably lost. The
gunner's a goner
kept playing in her head and she felt mean,
but knew it was just the letdown from the adrenaline that had been coursing through her system.

“Have you got nerves of steel?” she asked Ben.

He held out both hands and she noticed a slight tremor. “I'm okay while it's all happening, but afterward it always gets me.”

“Mother Ramona wants us up in Crossways Control.”

“You mean I have to look those Control guys in the eye?”

She laughed. “I'm afraid so.”

They took a tub to the hub and then Garrick's private elevator up to where Crossways Control bulged outward into space at the top of the spindle.

“Ah, the famous Ben Benjamin.” One of the controllers looked up and grinned at him. “You just won me fifty creds. I bet you'd emerge within thirty klicks of us and you did. Twenty-nine point four nine, to be precise. Briggs here figured fifty and Robbie was way out. He figured you'd actually stick to the rules this time.”

“Sorry, guys. Injured pilot.
Bellatkin
came in on the hundred mark.” Ben tried to look innocent and failed. “Okay, you got me, sorry.”

“Hey, you did all right,” Briggs said. “The hornet you brought back—pilot's married to my wife's cousin. Thanks for bringing her home.”

“Benjamin, in here if you will?” Mother Ramona waved them into a side room that contained a holographic three-dimensional plan of Crossways hanging in midair above one end of a long table and a second hologram on a different scale, showing the station and its environs.

“Well done, Ben.” Garrick looked up from where he was leaning over the table. “We owe you.”

“I'm afraid I lost three of your hornet crew.”

“Two. The gunner's injured, but he'll pull through. The other two are casualties of war. And I think we can safely call this a war, don't you?”

“I'm sure Alphacorp will call it policing, but, yes, it's war. Have you put out warnings to the independents?”

“It's gone out all over the S-LOGosphere and the tel-net and we've warned Jamundi and your grandmother to keep a communications blackout. They're safely out of it.”

Cara glanced sideways, but Ben didn't show any
emotion. He was all business again and his hands had lost the tremor.

“What's the defensive capability of the station?”

“Pulse-cannon, missiles and a laser array, four corvettes, five frigates, and eight cruisers. All of the frigates and two of the cruisers have been retrofitted with jump drives, but they haven't been on a shakedown run yet and we only have four jumpship pilots. The Magena sisters are each assigned to a cruiser, Valois and Sing each to a frigate, and I've even assigned Esterhazy to a corvette. There's only you and Gen left. There are a hundred and fifty hornets, but they're as likely to get taken out by friendly fire in this kind of exchange. I really wish I'd sent them all to Olyanda, that's where they'd be the most useful. I've got five hundred remotely piloted drones available, operated by a mixture of regular drone pilots and Psi-Mechs. I've had to call up every reservist and we still don't have anything to outgun a battlewagon. There are various private citizens who have put their firepower at our disposal, but it won't be enough.”

“Maybe they only want us.”

Cara's spine seemed to freeze at Ben's words.

“No,” Garrick said. “They've been looking for an excuse to take us down for years and now they've got it.”

“But why here? Why now?” Cara asked. “Wouldn't it make more sense to go after Olyanda?”

“Alphacorp has a tenuous legal claim on Crossways. It doesn't have a claim on Olyanda.”

“No, but the Trust does,” Ben said. “And I didn't see any Trust vessels among the fleet.”

They all looked at each other.

“He's right,” Cara said. Alphacorp, Arquavisa, Ramsay-Shorre, Eastin-Heigle and even Rodontee, but no Trust.

“Oh, fuck!” Mother Ramona voiced what they were all thinking.

Cara immediately forged a link to Oleg Staple.
*Have you got trouble there?*
she asked, opening the link to everyone.

*Negative.*

*Who's guarding the gate?*

*McPherson onboard
Sovereign
.*

The nearest jump gate was on the edge of the system,
days away at best sublight speed. It was one of the reasons Garrick had wanted a new gate closer to the planet.

*Check.*

*I have. She's still transmitting . . . oh hell, it's the old code. It should have changed at noon.*

*Prepare for incoming.*

*Right.*

*It could be everything the Trust can throw at you.*

*Understood.*

“Now what?” Mother Ramona asked.

“Now we wait,” Garrick said. “And we prepare.”

Ben turned to Cara. “Contact Yan and Lowenbrun. See if the ark's ready for the Folds.”

*Jump drive's just coming online now,*
Yan said.
*Haven't tested it yet.*

*How's the unloading?*
Cara asked.

*Two more containers of cryo pods,*
Jake said.

*How quickly can you offload them?*