Interzeit: A Space Opera (7 page)

Tystrophanes rears back, and hammers the energy blade onto the shield. Pushing her further and further down, he attacks. The flurry eventually flickers the shield, it bends, and
the blade sears the shield emitter. It falters,
and
Tystrophanes
smashes it. Tiger West’s right arm falls. The sharp blade lashes
into the mech
. The strikes melt through the deflectors, cutting through slowly, warping the hull into a molten wasteland, glowing trenches running through it, like a shot up battlefield.

Lei
ejected
to save
her own
life and Tiger West f
rom total destruction. The corps
had been angry at her “lack of resolve”, but now with the crisis on Earth, they had begun to sing a different tune. The criticisms fell away for the short-sighted bluster they were.

Maxelus hadn’t deserved what the Martians dealt out. Many in the colonies held onto that as an insult. Not just to
Kuipterra
, but to the spacer culture in general. As a figurehead he had been important, a dishonorable death would cause unrest.

Now her thoughts must focus on the task at hand however. If someone had sought vengeance on the terrestrials in his name, then it would tarnish his legacy forever. The millions lost must take precedence, b
ut she felt…

Basil
suddenly
alerted her to the long range sensor report. They had a t
hree of three authenticated
handshake between Tiger West, and the Martian agent’s ships.

She opened a channel, and was received by a gray haired man in a beige gray uniform.

“Glad to see you Ms. Liang,” He bowed curtly, “At our plot
ted
velocity, we will arrive at Vesta Minor in another two hours.”

Lei
replied in usual take orders politeness, The MISA (Mars Intelligence and Safety Authority) agents usually didn’t venture far off world. Their typical beat was regulatory compliance, and the “reconcillation” of dissidents.

The minor colonies on world and
off,
were often in need of reminding of their place. To prevent the fracturing away of these colonies, or their consolidation of too much power, MISA was formed. Experts in subversion and infiltration they were use
d
to being taken seriously.

Only time would tell if their confidence could stand up in the belt, where
Lei
knew first hand how personal loyalties could quickly overtake
“Principles” including that of patriotism. The Martians unlike TianShanTech were keen on trumpeting their
cultural wealth, upholding
equality,
freedom,
and cooperative decision making methods.

Their ships were black slivers in the void, often disappearing from visibility entirely.
Luckily, h
er advanced sensors made it possible to
track them
, despite their chameleon nature
. There seemed to be five of these ships in total, how many agents that really amounted to, she didn’t know.

“Basil” She muttered,

“Yes Master Liang?” It crooned through the mech’s
speaker
system.

“What do you suppose these agents will be doing on Vesta Minor?”

“MISA has a notorious reputation on the
Anthrion
net
.” Basil answers, “If there is something to hide on Vesta Minor, there is no doubt that they will uncover it. The turmoil they leave in the process is something of a somewhat volatile inconsistency.”

Lei
returned to her simulation when a message came through from the MISA ship. She opened
it,
the commander was of a more concerned nature this time.

“Our long range sensors are picking up a group of ten ships on an intercept course with us. 2500KMs until our vectors intersect,”

Lei
nodded, “Let’s keep moving, ten ships won’t stop me.
Which direction will they be
coming at us from?”

“Somewhere ahead and below our current bearing.”
He answered.

“Change course Commander, re-assemble the ships behind Tiger West, this won’t take long.”

The MISA ships complied, and Tiger West pulled into the front of the formation.
Lei
assembles
the Tiger West’s main long range cannon. It emerges out its chest, just above the cockpit. Tiger west leans forward, trave
ling
in a
narrow
prone orientation. The cannon
articulates
and aims in the general projected
vector of confrontation.

The first readings of the craft come into the Tiger’s sensors about 10,000 KMs out. Their trajectory is locked into the cannon
calculations,
Basil gives
Lei
the green light to fire.

“All ships,” She ordered, “Reduce speeds by 60 mega meters per second on my mark.”

She takes deep breathe, exhales, and, “Mark!”

She fires the cannon, the blast shakes the entire mech as the force pushes against the main rockets. Sensors read the MISA ships tracked with the recoil without issue, their course
maintained
on her tail.

The cannon’s projectile is a large metallic tube. It hurtles towards the ships at tremendous speeds.
5Mms from
the target the tubes internal mechanism exploded, its contents
swarm
out in a giant space. Tiny sharp engineered particulates fly at the ships in a cloud. The tiny crystalline shrapnel swim through space in a crashing wave, an ocean of daggers.

A few ships change trajectory, but seven explosions
still light up the sensor array
.

“Good Shot Miss.” Basil says encouragingly.

“We’ve got a two
one split on the others with their diverted trajectory
,
what are the chances we will come within their weapon range?”

“Five percent,” He calculates.

She smiles, contacting the
ships,
she comes t
o consensus with the commander
on the situation. He agrees that the chances
of intercept
were
now
small, and thanks her for the escort.

They close in on Vesta Minor. A
n
asteroid the size of a building
suddenly changes course. From its harmless drifting it bolts at
Lei
. She raises the electro shield just as it smashes into Tiger West.

She winces on impact, but
notices a jet trail coming from the back of the rock.

“Clever.” She thinks. Tiger
West
leans, allowing the rock to slide past along the shield. As she pivots away, a myriad of hooked tendril
s
burst forth from the asteroid’s rocky surface. They latch and grab against Tiger West’s deflectors as it passes.

It shoots past, and then drags her Mech with it. The metal tendrils go
taunt
and both are whirled around in chaotic orbital spin dance. The convoy dashes around them and continues forward unprotected.

“What is it Basil?”
Lei
asks

“I’m afraid I do not know. It appears to be a drone of some kind.”

“Fuck,” She swears, “Contact the convoy, I’ve got this.”

She swings the edges of electroshield, the crackling circumference of the field slices through the durable tendrils with ease. With every cut and snapping tendril, the spin and velocity of their tumbling alters.

With the last anchor remaining, they drift in a vicious co-orbit. The rock shell of the drone explodes suddenly. The hull and metal of the device is revealed. It is glowing white
hot. Something inside
triggers
,
and
it
explodes into a tremendous fire ball.

It crashes and squeals against Tiger West’s magnetic barrier. The energy readings from the shield fall dramatically,

“Fucking hell!”
Lei
yells
, the heat from the explosion thickens the cockpit.

Finally she locates the last tendril on a rear deflector plate. She finds the deflector emergency switch array, and releases the rear plates one by one. Finally she flicks lucky and Tiger West goes hurtling away from the white hot sphere.

She watches it, for a moment it seems to pause in space, no longer vanishing. Her sensors scanned the object to reveal that it was indeed moving, but
also
growing in size in the process.

Its surface ballooned outwards exponentially, emitting strong radiation and searing heat. Suddenly it discharged a huge plume of gas in all directions. The space dust bl
o
w
s
around
Lei
in a color stream.
N
othing remained of the globe outside a dying dune of sparkling dust.

“Basil, was that a…sun?” She asked,

“I share your hypothesis Miss. Sensor scans on the dust seem to indicate fusion reaction product.”

“A fusion bomb…” She mutters, watching the Technicolor dust slowly dissipate into the vacuum. The dust pulled apart from itself, wandering to some particular unknown destiny decided by angular momentum and gravity. None of it would ever be destroyed, but that state, form, and
change was dead, only temporary
.

What remained now was divided by space, and incorporated into its vastness. The concept not destroyed, but emptied, and thinned.
It was f
alling forever towards non-existence, lines and slowing curves never reaching zero, forever
to exist
a kiss’s distance away.

That was the fate of anything destroyed in space, to become a micrometer of the nothingness
,
of the empty.

Basil reported that the convoy had stopped responding to hails and ionic pings a few moments after they had been intercepted. Fearing the worst, they returned to the original course. There was no sign or trace of them as they proceeded towards Vesta Minor.

Lei
knew the many things that could mean. As with the space dust, so to were they all vulnerable to their own infinite smallness.

They soon came within sensor range of Vesta Minor. A colony loosely affiliated with
TianShan, it was a
cylindrical enclosed atmosphere
ship
, twisting its own gravity into existence
.

So far from the sun, such a colony was an expensive endeavor, however due to the mining operations on the nearby mega asteroid
,
Vesta, an operation
this scale
was feasible
.
W
ith the proper discipline and force of will
of course
.

Despite the wealth, they insisted on their own personal
security,
and near complete autonomy from the TST Executive Corp. As long as the colony was profitable, such accommodations were
always
happily granted.

Any damage to the colony hull would be catastrophic, the Vestians therefore with high caution, enforced a militarized zone around their orbital domain. A violator of this space could easily end up space dust.

They were stopped at the border by a warning hail
from a
nearby frigate cannon.
Lei
complies
, opening up communications.

“Why does TST send their war mech here?” The frigate captain asks, “What purpose do you serve here.”

Lei
explained her role as escort to a retinue of ships. The perimeter guard told her that no ships
matching that design
had come through.
Lei
apologized profusely, and asked for entry.

“I’ve been traveling all day thro
ugh deep space. Low on supplies, I’m here on official business, I assure you
.”

She was held in limbo as they contacted the E
xecutive Corp for confirmation. The frigate captain eventually informed her that his commanding officer had spoken with an official, and that her entry had been sanctioned.

Tiger
West
drifted in among the frigates. The ships sat idling, their vast array of sensors monitoring the near space activity in great detail. The turning and spinning tower await
ed her
ahead.
A disc like ring of docking and ship bays traced around it in a snowflake branching pattern.
The floating world of Vesta Minor
beckons
her
inside.