Hayden Kaine hit the auxiliary thruster and was sucked into his chair hard enough to rattle his teeth. His shuttle’s frame vibrated under the stress of struggling to escape the planet’s gravity well.
He had a good lead on his pursuers, but they made up for it now. He couldn’t make himself believe the acceleration of their ships. Human physiology shouldn’t be able to withstand the kinds of G-forces they pulled. He realized they were being piloted by AIs, which would make his escape more difficult. Tau Ceti, like most of the systems he visited, had achieved some impressive technological advances.
A plasma burst bloomed metres from his port side. They did not miss. They were forcing him in a direction to capture him.
Like a defiant child, Hayden pushed his acceleration to the upper limit of his endurance and veered to the left. Once he escaped the atmosphere, the advantage should become his.
His drop ship was not designed for evasive combat moves. The modifications after the last few close encounters were welcome, but they were proving insufficient for the hostility he now encountered.
Another blast shook his small craft. That one had hit his armoured hull. They were no longer interested in capturing him.
A quick perusal of his readouts told him the enhanced armour held up to whatever they were throwing at him, but Hayden was pretty sure they hadn’t yet pulled out their big guns.
As the air thinned in his upward climb, his pursuers dropped back, having reached the limits of their ability to follow him. The familiar tug of gravity lessened, and he heaved a sigh of relief. After adjusting his course heading to take him to his rendezvous, he glanced at the object responsible for all the drama. It was only as big as his palm, and those who dispatched the interceptors had no clue what it was, or that it even existed.
As far as they knew, he was a raider caught trespassing in their salvage yard. Stealing junk from decommissioned ships wasn’t an offence worthy of the fuss they were putting up, but as Hayden had learned, isolation made people more covetous of any old technology. There was no way to replace anything, so old parts were particularly valuable. Most of the worlds he had visited guarded everything jealously, and few took kindly to strangers poking about.
It had taken months to confirm their target was located here and weeks longer to figure out the ship they sought was mothballed and scheduled to be cut up for parts. He was fortunate they hadn’t begun the task, which allowed him to board and locate the innocuous component.
As soon as he got back to Scimitar and handed his contraband over to the engineers, his role in the scavenger hunt would be completed. Others could do their part and maybe—just maybe—humanity would have a chance.
An alarm sounded, and Hayden’s sensor panel lit up with a proximity warning. Four patrol ships had broken orbit and were on fast approach.
Whatever he stole was not something they were willing to let go of easily. It was a lot of overkill to apprehend a single scavenger kicking around a junkyard for spare parts.
Every planetary system they had visited over the past six months had a different way of coping with the collapse of the interstellar jump gate, but one thing was common among them: they were all xenophobic in the extreme.
The once united Confederation of almost a thousand suns was fragmented, and formerly connected worlds were now isolated. Forced to rely on their own resources, it seemed a human tendency to protect whatever remained, even if it was useless.
With even the closest occupied systems years apart at light speed, humanity had been plunged into a dark age. Hayden feared what the long-term outcome would be if the situation persisted much longer.
His speakers crackled with demands for him to stand down and prepare to be boarded. He was in no mood to comply. Plotting an evasive course, he broke orbit and rocketed away from the planet.
The four pursuing ships were now joined by two more, and they were closing on him.
A red light bloomed on his console, informing him his engine was overheating. The suborbital fighters had done more damage to his ship than he’d realized.
Entering his command override, he closed the alarm down and pushed his thrust to the maximum while he still could.
Even with his intervention, the AI system would shut everything down when it reached critical temperature. There was nothing he could do to prevent that. He would be at the mercy of those who chased him. Based on their unfriendly reaction to him, he doubted they would give much credence to his reasons for violating their airspace.
Another alarm flashed, and a klaxon boomed. The ships had fired a missile. Hayden had only a few seconds to brace for impact, and he prayed his ship’s hull held.
His ship shook. His engine output sputtered as it was shut down.
Now, with only inertia to carry him, he was minutes away from interception.
He mentally kicked himself. He was given the opportunity to install weapons in addition to the defensive armour. He declined because if he thought he could survive a firefight, he might be tempted to take unnecessary risks. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.
Now, such naive sentiment was going to get him captured or killed when they learned his identity.
An hour from his rendezvous at full burn, there was little chance of him escaping. Activating his comms, he issued a mayday.
Pavlovich would be pissed. This was supposed to be a stealth operation. The last thing anyone wanted was to attract attention. Now, if this mission had any hope of success, he was going to need some assistance.
After a long interval with no response, Hayden repeated his distress signal.
Still no reply.
His pulse racing, he expanded his broadcast to the other channels. He didn’t really care at this point if his pursuers heard him call for help.
Silence was his only reward.
The ships would be on him in a few minutes.
He tried to reactivate his engines, but the failsafe prevented him from doing so.
The speaker crackled to life, and for a moment, his heart raced in anticipation of hearing Pavlovich’s gruff admonition. Instead, an unknown voice ordered him to prepare to be boarded.
Now it came down to likelihoods.
When they arrived, they would search the ship and find the pilfered component. Once it garnered the attention of the authorities, it would become impossible to retrieve. It was an outcome he could not allow.
Without the object, humanity was defenceless against a threat it couldn’t imagine.
A cynical laugh escaped Hayden. There was a good chance that even with the component and what it would lead them to, humanity was doomed. He and the others had been chasing this ghost for months and were no closer to learning what the cynosure was. During that time, they had convinced themselves it was the last great hope.
Nobody really knew how it might help. So desperate was the situation, that they were grasping at myths and legends.
All he understood was the Malliac horde would eventually arrive. When that happened, no one stood a chance.
He unbuckled and retrieved his prize. Pushing off from his chair, he floated to the storage locker.
Rummaging through it, he carelessly tossed items aside to drift about.
His desperation grew as his search failed to turn up the item he knew had to be there. If he got through this, he promised himself he would adhere to Cora’s demands he keep things better organized.
Finding what he sought, he checked to assure himself it was charged. After setting its delay timer, he duct-taped it to the contraband component and then launched himself across the cabin to the galley, even as the insistent voice over the speaker demanded his reply.
With a manic chuckle, he forced his package into the waste disposal chute. Before he closed it, he jammed other random objects in until it was filled. He had no idea if his plan would work, but the time for brainstorming was over. He heard trucking thrusters being clamped to his hull and knew his time was almost up.
Forcing himself to be patient, he waited for the right moment. His hand tightened on his handhold as he anticipated what would come next.
When the attached rockets fired to bring his ship to heel, his body was jerked forward. Only his grip on the handle prevented him from being dashed against a wall.
He pulled himself back and hit the ejection release. They’d interpret the cloud of debris escaping as damaged parts shaken loose by the braking manoeuvre.
Hayden pushed himself toward the storage locker and removed a pressure suit in case they decided not to use the docking hatch.
As he activated the HUD, a proximity alert came up. Another much larger ship approached at high speed.
He hurried to the pilot seat and strapped himself in. A quick review of the sensors showed his captors breaking off and fleeing.
A loud voice boomed in his ear. “Your new playmates didn’t stick around, Kaine. Was it something you said?”
Pavlovich had arrived in Scimitar, and he didn’t sound pleased.
