The Last Horizon

Chapter 6

“Nikki, do you copy?” It was Max, and from the tone of his voice, this sounded urgent. “Nikki can you hear me?”

“Yes Max, what’s going on?” I pressed my left hand over the ear piece of my headset and leaned forward. Scotty had sunk into his seat and fallen asleep.

“I’ve got a signature on my screen showing that you’ve got company out there.”

“Details?”

“None yet. You’re so far out it could be anyone.”

“Nothing on my side yet. How far way are they from me?”

“Two hundred miles. One craft. It’s about the size of a Class-3 freighter…”

“Okay, I’ve got ‘em, Max, they just blipped on the scanner.” A transmission chimed-in on my headset. I could see on the panel it was coming from the ship--a looped message on the general call network.

“…CQD, this is the Moria Balá…need assistance…CDQ, this is the Moria Balá…”

“Max, I’ve got an incoming communication on another push. Looks like a distress call.”

“Be careful, Nikki. Could be a siren.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, Max.” I disengaged the auto-pilot, took control of the Zephyr, and steered in the direction of the distress call.

“Trouble Nikki?” Scotty asked quietly as he yawned and stretched.

“We’re not alone.”

“What’s up?”

“Not sure yet, but it looks like a disabled ship.”

“Anything I can do?”

“Yeah, relax and let me do my job.” I said firmly as I double checked the Black Spyder and slowed down to a sub-hypersonic speed and put the drives on coast.

“…CQD, this is the Moria Balá…need assistance…CDQ, this is the Moria Balá…”

I didn’t have it in me to ignore the call, and if this was a ship in trouble I couldn’t live with myself if I abandoned other humans in space. So for the first time in my career, I broke the first rule of smuggling and keyed my headset.

“Mark One, Moria Balá, come back.”

“CQD, this is the Moria…this is Captain Seinz of the Moria Balá, can you hear me? Over.”

“Roger Moria Balá,” I responded calmly, “your transmission is clear.”

“Please identify. Over.”

“This is the pilot of the Blue Zephyr, Captain Seinz. What’s your status? Over.”

“Blue Zephyr, we were attacked by a bandit vessel. My ship is disabled and I have wounded on board. We’ve been adrift for two days. Can you assist?”

“I’ve marked your position, Captain. I’ll send a call out for an SAR team to come for you when we get close enough to the main shipping lanes.”

“Blue Zephyr, my wounded are critical, I need to get them off board and get them the proper medical attention . Can you dock?”

I turned to Scotty and shook my head. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

We were about to make a pass less than six kilometers away from the Moria Balá. We would still be a fairly safe distance from them and out of visual range.

“I’m going to run a probe on them.”

The flight computer profiled the craft and the image showed up as a 3D model on one of the video display units.

“You don’t trust the captain, Nikki?”

“No way. Even if they’ve been drifting for two days how the hell did they get way out here? We’re too far from the lanes for them to have floated this far off course.”

Suddenly, the cabin filled with a bright flicker of orange light followed by the sound of thunder as a warhead detonated a thousand meters in front of us. The Zephyr shuddered and the cabin lights blinked on and off as we were jostled hard against our seats. We could hear the clatter of debris slamming against the fuselage as we flew through the shrapnel.

“Damn it!” I shouted angrily as I clutched the yoke and stabilized the Zephyr.

“Are we hit?”

“I don’t see any breach in our hull!” I glowered as I looked at the diagnostic panel for red blinking lights. “That was close!”

Another transmission from the Moria piped over the cast, “Blue Zephyr, power down and surrender your ship or we will fire on you again!”

“I knew it!” The probe showed that the Moria had fired-up its engines and began to turn in our direction. “Hang on, it’s time to turn-n-burn. I’m going to try to out run them!”

“Blue Zephyr, you cannot escape. Power down and prepare to be boarded.”

Getting hijacked is one thing, but what the pirates would do to a female if they captured me was another. “Captain Seinz, why don’t you pack five pounds of sodium azide in the crack of your ass and get blistered!” I growled as I punched an overdrive button and launched us into spontaneous hypersonic flight.

“You just signed your own death warrant, pilot!” Seinz snarled. “I’m going to skin you alive and roll you in salt. Before I’m done, you will be begging me to put an end to your pitiful life!”

“That ship’s fast!” I hissed as I looked at the vector scanner to get a fix on their position. “They just went hypersonic.”

“Don’t you have any weapons systems to protect yourself?”

“We’re a civilian freighter,” I was about to tell Scotty about the Bokka but decided against it for now, “we have to rely on Fleet or ISP officers to defend us from parasites like Seinz.”

“And we’re an illegal flight so...”

“…so we’re as lawless as they are and basically shit out of luck.”

We almost had a hundred and fifty mile lead, but the Moria was closing on us fast. I accelerated and hoped we could put enough distance between us to discourage a pursuit. If I extended the sonic drive shrouds to shield the magnetic trace from the spawnsons, they would smother the magnetic fields the drives needed to maximize our speed. I kept the canopy’s particle heat shield up so I could actually see what was in front of us as we blazed through the chill of deep space.

“We’re still two days out from Tal-Seti, but we can definitely shake them off our ass if we can reach the Ceres Vesta belt.”

“Okay, do what you have to do.” Scotty replied through clenched teeth.

“I was figuring on maxing 2.8 HsD but we’re going to have to push the drives harder. You’d better tighten your harness, Scotty, I’m going to burn the pipe and try to knock a few more hours off our flight time.”

“How fast can your ship go?”

“I can get 4.5 HsD, but the Zephyr can’t maintain that speed for too long or the cryogen squelch piping will rupture and we’ll burn-out the inter-coolers.”

“Then what happens?”

“Then we’re a dead stick. We may as well initiate the self-destruct sequence and vaporize ourselves before Seinz gets to us.”

“I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice, Nikki. You’re going to have to push the Zephyr.”

“He’s pissed.” I snickered softly as I bit my lower lip and gave Scotty an embarrassed look.

“You think? You told him to pack his ass.” Scotty smiled.

“He fired on us then threatened to skin me alive! Not exactly the kind of thing a girl likes to hear during the holidays.”

“Do you always get in this much trouble, Nikki?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“I mean first it was that guy at Kurlie’s bar, now you’ve got this Seinz in love with you…”

“Okay, so I’m having a bad week,” I feigned angrily as I tried to keep a straight face, “you may want to tread lightly, Scotty, I’m not above lobbing an insult your direction to keep you in your place.”

“You’re all heart.” Scotty smiled widely as he turned his attention back to the view outside the canopy.

“We’re at 3.2 now. I’m hoping Seinz isn’t going to be able to keep up with us .”

“What if he can?”

“He needs to be able to see us first. Any vector scan or IMF probe he does will be a waste of time, we’re shielded electronically. If he tries to get a thermal image on our heat signature he’ll be out of luck. We’re purely hypersonic--have been since I shut down the thrusters when we cleared Earth’s gravitational pull, so he can’t track us by infra-red. We also don’t leave any ion or radiation trails because the Zephyr has magnetic drives. The only two ways Seinz could track us is if the Moria can zero-in on our drive’s magnetic emissions or he actually gets a visual on us.”

“How visible is our magnetic trail?”

“There are a lot of things floating around out there that have magnetic fields--meteorites, asteroids, charged particles in the solar winds, not to mention plasma streams and transient energies. Seinz would have to ferret the Zephyr’s profile out of that fodder and get within a hundred mile radius to get an accurate reading on our course, but then again…”

“But then again—what?”

I sighed. “I’ve seen a lot of things since I’ve been in the business. Black market techies are willing to make just about anything if you’ve got the cash or credit to pay them off…no questions asked propositions. God only knows what kind of systems the Moria has onboard and where he got them.” I shook my head with disdain and exhaled. “I farking hate pirates.”

“Is there a difference between bandits and pirates?”

“Bandits steal. Pirates kill.”

I held our trajectory steady and kept an eye on the scanner for the Moria Balá as we pushed into the infinite sub-zero blackness toward the Pipe. Thousands of light years ahead, the vast blue and orange beauty of the Lucky CN 1051 Nebula filled the cockpit canopy. The central star pulsed with a rhythm as if the birth of another solar system was being announced to the rest of the universe.

“Tell me about Nexus. Kurlie said you knew the planet like the back of your hand.”

“What do you want to know? Demographics?”

“I was thinking along the lines of night life. You know, dance clubs, parties, shows…”

“Nikki, do I look like the type of guy that goes to dance clubs?”

“You never know about a person, you don’t exactly fit the profile of anyone that would do business with Kurlie, either.”

“I think you’ll love it there. The days are thirty-six hours long, so you’ll have plenty of time to recover from any of the festivities you plan to attend.”

“Once this drop is made, I’ll refuel and tune-up the Zephyr for the trip back, it usually takes about two days depending on how much particle damage there is on the hull.”

“Are you going to need help with that?”

“Nah, it’s not that big a deal most of the time, and I can usually hire a mechanic for the heavier work if one of the larger panels needs to be replaced.”

“Let me know if you want to share the repair costs.”

“Thanks, Scotty.” I smiled warmly as I glanced at him. I was really starting to like this guy. “When I’m done, I’d like to hang back for a few days to rest before we start back to Earth. You know, poke around Nexus and get a feel for the culture.”

“When do you want to leave?”

“We arrive in Fluture on Tuesday morning at 0530. Meet me back at the Inter-port on Sunday the 29 at the same time, I want to get an early start home. Will that give you enough time to take care of your business?”

“Perfect, you’ve got a deal.”

“Get some rest, Scotty.”

“What about you?”

“I’ve got a ship to fly. No sleep for the wicked.”

The hours stretched out in ragged strands coiled with apprehension. I was worried about Seinz, I’ve encountered hijackers before, but they’ve never been able to put the fear in me like this guy--even without knowing what he looked like, he frightened me. Yes, his threats were barbaric and unsettling, but it wasn’t limited to what he said, it was in how he said it. Call it a woman’s intuition, but there was just something in his voice that set my internal alarm off and terrified me. It seemed to change the energy that surrounded us--it was dark, soulless, and reptilian. I had a feeling that vaporizing me wouldn’t satisfy Seinz. No, he struck me as a sadist that wanted more from his victims. He wants to see them suffer, writhe, and beg.

Another cause for concern was the Moria’s speed, she looked like a formidable ship, and I’ve never seen a vessel that size move so fast; and last but not least, the missile he fired at us; judging from the burst, it had to be a military grade warhead. God only knows how and where he got ordnance like that and what else he had in his arsenal.

I edged the Zephyr closer to her maximum speed and held her there for a couple of hours then backed-off the drives before they squelched. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I couldn’t remember ever being so tired on any journey.

As we neared the Ceres Vesta asteroid belt, the instrument panel twittered three times. “Damn!” I cussed raptly as I shot a look at the vector scanner.

“What’s wrong?” Scotty snapped awake and clutched the armrests of his chair.

“As if we didn’t have enough problems,” I pointed at the monitor, “see those four red dots blipping ahead of us?”

“What are they?”

“I can’t tell yet, give the scanner a minute to get us a profile. They may be harmless navigation buoys based on their spacing. They’re just in our path for now.”

I exhaled as the computer began constructing a model of the crafts ahead, then turned my attention on tracker to see where the Moria was positioned.

“Eighty miles and closing.” I clenched my teeth hard and frowned. “Seinz is on our trajectory.”

“Nikki, what the hell are those things in front of us?” Scotty scowled as he stared at the monitor at the rotating 3D images. The VDU revealed four unmanned crafts, each with armored dome fuselages twenty feet in diameter and six segmented tentacles trailing forty feet behind them.

“Oh that’s just great, Serenian terminus drones. Seekers.”

“How far are they?”

“Hundred and twenty miles out, but I’m going to draw them in.”

“WHAT?”

“You heard me. Look, Seinz is gaining on us and we’re less than two hours away from Ceres Vesta. I don’t think we’re going to be able to outrun him.” I pointed at the vector scanner and the VDU. “I’ve got a plan, we get those Seekers and the Moria to zero-in on us, if I time it right, maybe we can get the drones to go after Seinz’s ship and we can slip through.”

“Risky.” Scott sighed as he rubbed his brow.

“It’s our only chance. We need to disable the Moria or we’ll never make it to the Pipe.”

“Okay, Nikki, I trust your judgment.”

“One more thing, Scotty.”

“What’s that?”

“Seinz doesn’t know you’re here, as far as he’s concerned, I’m the only one on board. If this doesn’t work and he boards us,” I looked over at Scotty grimly, “there’s an epod in the cargo hold, I want you to get in and eject. I’ll keep them distracted while you get away. The auto-pilot is enabled by default and should get you to the lanes. You should get picked up by a freighter.”

“And what are you going to do?”

“I’ve got the shuttle,” I lied, “I’ll get out when I get the chance.”

“If not?”

“Captain goes down with the ship. It’s an old, unspoken code of honor. Once Seinz is on board I’ll blow-up the Zephyr and take him with me into the afterlife in a blaze of glory.”

“Nikki…”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds, one thing that will come out of this is that smugglers will be telling this story for years to come.” I smiled.

“You’re crazed.”

“Hang on to your ass!” I bellowed as I flipped on the toggle switches and fired the thrusters. The Zephyr punched forward with the added power surge as the rockets flared to life and gave the ship a bright heat signature as we hit 4.8 HsD.

“It’s working, the Seekers are moving toward us!” I laughed maniacally as I looked at the VDU. “Damn! We’re hauling ass!” I hooted as I checked our speed.

“Zephyr,” Seinz’s voice boomed over the intercom, “ramp down and surrender!”

“Eat carbon, you asshat!” I spit back into the intercom knowing he could track us by infra-red now.

The Moria was less than twenty miles away when they fired several missiles. The first one detonated three hundred feet in front of us, and large superheated shrapnel smashed into our fuselage as we hurled through the daggers of particle lite and fire…

“Goddamn it!” I screamed as I banked a hard left and nosed down thirty-five degrees in an evasive maneuver; that pitched the gyroscope wildly in the opposite direction and the drives screamed…

…the second warhead exploded less than a hundred feet on our left and almost threw us into a spin. The heat from the blast scathed the hull and shredded a main RAM panel. Scotty was jolted hard in his seat and I could barely hear him cussing as the detonation engulfed us with a thunderous boom and bright flash of light…

…the Zephyr rocked sideways and the instrument panels and overhead console lit-up in red as alarms sounded…the third missile blew up and ripped a portion of the left vertical rudder to pieces and punctured one of the main cryogen pipes feeding the right hypersonic drive…

I throttled the drives back and ramped down to exit hypersonic. I kept the thrusters on and drove forward as the whine of the drives began to recede. I could see the image of the Moria Balá on the VDU…they had caught up to us and matched our speed.

Seinz brought the ship two hundred feet above the Zephyr. It was a lot larger than I thought; the Moria was a dark, steely grey with reactive armor and a series of probes grouped at the front of her hull. From what I could see up close, the craft was at least three times larger than the Zephyr and looked like a Serenian deep space battle cruiser.

I looked at Scotty and nodded, “Get to the pod.” I said calmly as I looked at the vector scanner. “When you see the door of the decon chamber open, eject.”

Scotty stood up steadily, grabbed his flight helmet, and walked to the bulkhead door to the pressure-lock that led back to the hold.

“Good luck, Nikki.” He said sullenly, then stepped into the lock.

The thrusters of the Moria Balá burned radiantly in the blue-black void of space, and I could see their flicker reflected off the surface of the cockpit anti-glare panel. I looked up through the glass canopy and saw the retro-jets on the bottom of the Moria’s massive hull firing in an even pattern to slow down as they loomed over us. I also noticed a ball gun turret with the twin barrels of a pulse cannon trained at my cockpit. We were at cruising speed but the chase was over.

I sighed and I punched in my code to initiate the self-destruct sequence and set it for a silent countdown. All that was left was the voice command…