III
Martins’ Eagle flew deep in the outer reaches of the Geraparn system. The colony feed that tracked the progress of the rocket had been running constantly since launch, and Martins had it pinned up on one of his ships displays. The timing was going to be everything on this. Sher-wan’s ship ran cloaked directly behind his. As Sher-wan had told him back at the hotel, the large squadron of over twenty fighters the Geraparn’s called the honour guard took turns to periodically pair off and run alongside Sher-wan’s rocket to relay the video of the purification back to Gerapar. One ship would generally fly alongside the rocket whilst the other moved around to give different perspectives to the Geraparns watching back home. The angle looking back to the rocket and the fleet of fighters keeping pace behind seemed to be popular, as was the 3rd person view of the dwarf star growing dead ahead with the rocket to one side or another flying towards its centre. There was one static camera of the interior that showed Hercene looking out the window to the growing sun. Hercene’s vital signs would augment the feed periodically to reassure people he was still awake and hadn’t somehow cheated the mortal aspect of the sentence. The specific interventions from the life support computer were also displayed whenever the vital signs indicated it was needed. After an hour or so the pair of fighters would make their way back to the main host, and another pair would take their place. It was well into the final stage of the flight, there were only two more changeovers left. The star now filled almost ninety percent of the field of vision when the 3rd person camera view was being shown. Most people on Gerapar would be tuned in now for the final stretch. All Martins was waiting for now was the camera ships to make their next change over.
‘What’s the delay?’ he wondered out loud. The changeover was running late, and the gravity well limit that prevented jumping to close to the star was fast approaching.
Sher-wan spoke on the encrypted channel the two had established.
‘Who knows – maybe there’s a technical problem with the ships replacing them. Or they’re just enjoying themselves too much as cameramen’.
‘Well, we can’t hold off much longer, they’re going to be too close to the gravity well.’
‘That’s why we have Plan B.’
‘Yes, I know, but I’d rather not have to resort to it. Those pilots are only following their orders, whilst we’re freeing a probable murderer. I’d rather not destroy anything for him if we can avoid it.’
‘If we need to, we need to’ said Sher-wan, ‘so don’t hesitate to shoot. Orders or not, those fanatics on the other end of the cannon won’t think twice about it’.
‘They’re still not swapping over dammit. What are they doing? We’ve only 30 seconds left to make the jump in.’
The ships still held position alongside Hercene’s rocket. One of them started to manoeuvre again; to Martins’ dismay it was commencing another sweep around the rocket.
‘Oh, you’re kidding me’ he moaned.
‘Jump Martins, do it now’ instructed Sher-wan.
10 seconds left. The jump computer was already warning on screen about the stars gravity limit via a countdown. Now it started flashing its concern at him. ‘Wait, they’re coming back after all – we can still get them.’
‘Times up Martins – hit it!’
‘Damn!’ exclaimed Martins and he engaged the jump. Sher-wan slipped into his jump stream a couple of seconds behind him before it closed. The jump itself still took a few more seconds to enter, traverse and exit hyperspace even though it was a micro-jump, one made from within the same system. The jump exit widened into normal space and Martins found himself directly where they had planned – surrounded on all sides by the fleet of the honour guard. From the centre of the fleet he hit the EMP device. Custom made for the job it carried a massive overcharge with its power supply taking up a huge section of Martins cargo hold. The ships around him dimmed into darkness, their nav lights failing them. That was all the evidence he needed – the fleet was dealt with. Sher-wan came over the radio as he arrived in on the slip stream of his fading jump point. ‘Good work Martins.’
But did he have the pair of returning ships? The radar finished its sweep and brought up the twenty close blips of the fleet. At the top of the ellipse Hercene’s rocket was moving away from him, but between them? Two dots bearing downwards and closing! ‘Missed the camera ships’ he groaned.
‘Then plan B – deal with them Martins. I’ll stay cloaked and dock with the rocket to get Hercene’.
Martins blasted away from the fleet and broke left and up, giving Sher-wan a clear path forwards as the camera ships pursued Martins’ ship. Martins reinforced the rear shields and threw his craft about wildly to make his pursuers lives as tough as possible. Catching him was easy enough for the Geraparns, hitting him became quite another. Martins was able to keep it up enough to ensure his shields weren’t over stretched. Sher-wan meanwhile provided a running commentary on his progress over the quantum comms link; he had quickly caught up with Hercene and docked his ship over the rocket door.
Martins turned to circle the fighters a couple of times as if to intercept the rocket himself, but the fighters changed tack putting themselves ahead and attacking from his fore. It seemed to Martins that their tactics were to try to keep him away from the rocket and to keep chasing him as far as possible from it. He figured they were waiting for reinforcements being scrambled to jump in from the home planet or for the fleet to recover their power in order to overpower him. Fine by him.
‘I’m at the door,’ Sher-wan announced. ‘Now let’s see if our trojan spy did its job properly. Viola – I’m in! Ok, I’m heading up’.
So far so good, Martins spun hard and fired a few shots of his own, he didn’t really want to destroy them when he didn’t need to. Just scatter them about enough to let them know he meant business. Martins was happy to alternate between defence and attack and provide the pretence of a stalemate.
‘Ah, there you are Hercene,’ said Sher-wan over the link, ‘let’s start with taking off that collar and mask shall we? Ah, there we go’. Hercene barely muttered something hoarse and inaudible.
‘Yes I quite agree with you old friend, let’s get you out of this. But before I do, I need you to deliver your part of the bargain.’ Hercene spoke again, he was too quiet and hoarse for Martins to make out.
‘Yes, yes, of course that’s what I mean – the statue’.
‘Sher-wan,’ Martins interrupted, ’we don’t have time for this, just get him off the rocket’.
Martins missed any reply as the Geraparns landed several shots in succession onto his shields.
‘Very good Hercene – let’s get out you of this chassis then.’ Muffled noises followed intermittently for a time over the speakers whilst Martins kept the fighters busy. He made for another run towards the rocket when the jump warning sounded in his cabin. Blip after blip after blip started to appear on the edge of the radar ellipse, and then they were all falling inwardly to its centre.
‘Sher-wan, their reinforcements are here already, get yourselves out of there’.
‘I have Hercene free. Clear the path to me of those two fighters I can still hear hammering your shields. I’ll be with you in a moment’. Sher-wan lowered his voice to talk to Hercene. ‘Now for the last time Hercene keep your bargain - where is the statue?’
Martins felt himself caught in the closing vice then; the small holding force behind him and the swarm of ships closing in fast that would soon overwhelm him. He cursed, swung around against the two camera ships and reversed his shield strength. He took aim for real this time and found his mark. His own ship far outgunned those of the small Geraparn vessel, and its shields were no match for his either. The lasers pummelled through to the hull of the lead ship and hit something critical within it. As it lit up the sky the other turned to flee. Martins locked on to it with a missile, firing it as soon as the reticule turned solid. Six short seconds of life were all that were left to the second ship. Martins immediately made full thrust for the rocket, away from the newly arrived ships. His tactical computer stretched the intercept time out to ninety seconds for the fleet pursuing behind him.
‘Thank you Hercene,’ said Sher-wan over the speakers. ‘Now, it’s time you were going’.
BANG!
The blast jolted Martins upright as another quickly followed it through the speakers. ‘Sher-wan, what’s happening?’
‘I’m afraid Hercene won’t be joining us after all Martins. I’m coming back, get ready to pass by’.
‘You’ve killed him!’
‘Quite, he has outlived his usefulness, except here in the rocket. I know where the statue is’, Sher-wan said as he made his way back through the rocket. ‘Ok, I’m back at the door, sealing it now’.
‘This was meant to be a rescue mission, I just killed two people to save that man!’ shouted Martins.
Sher-wan sighed audibly over the noise of the door closing behind him. ‘We will discuss this at length when we’ve escaped out of here. You have the jump co-ordinates ready?’
‘Yes, you don’t have to worry about me leaving you here. I might want to, but I like the idea of them capturing and interrogating you even less.’ That and you owe me half a million credits, Martins thought. No way he was going to give up on that now even if Hercene wasn’t alive to pay it himself. The debt was all Sher-wan’s now.
‘I’m at the cockpit’. Sher-wan breathed heavily through the speakers. ‘I have you on radar, Martins. Ok, I see you approaching. Keep it straight, I’m pulling in behind your tail now’.
Martins flew straight past the rocket without stopping. The lack of any attempt to interfere with it was an inaction the Geraparns puzzled far too briefly about later, putting it down to the home planets fleet closing in. Eight seconds after passing over it, before the first of the Geraparn fighters could close enough to open fire, Martins jumped.
*
