I admire that greatly.
It is a lesson I know I should take to heart myself.
As soon as we jump in and the navigator has confirmed everything is safe, our course is set to immediately intercept thePalmarian Rubayne.
The scariest part of this, for me, is when Dr. H’looder and the captain of the first frigate inform thePalmarian Rubayne’s captain of Maxim Colonies’ orders as we draw closer.
Even as Dr. H’looder and the first frigate captain are talking to the captain of thePalmarian Rubayne, three small landing craft from the frigate, which are cloaked behind electronic shields that make them undetectable to thePalmarian Rubayne’s sensors, are already making their way over toward the cargo freighter’s docking bay. Colarmin and pheir team are on another landing vessel, waiting to launch when given the all-clear by the military teams, who will first secure the ship.
It is expected the captain will not wish to comply with the orders. Should he comply, officers aboard the landing craft will pretend to be engineers until they can secure the vessel and take the captain and crew into custody.
Blessedly, I am now in direct, real-time communication with Davies, via our com units. I relay systems information from him and McMurtry to H’looder’s crew. I am typing messages to Davies, and I tell him to seal himself in his cabin in preparation for the team’s boarding. I do not want him accidentally caught in any weapons fire, even though they already know who he is and what he looks like.
Davies, however, is worried about the ship’s engineer, McMurtry. Davies passes word to him to also take cover, but then, as they say, the plan H’looder’s team tried to implement does not survive contact with opposing forces.
When the captain of thePalmarian Rubayneattempts to refuse H’looder’s offer of assistance, the three landing craft disengage their shielding devices to appear outside thePalmarian Rubaynein preparation for docking.
That is when the captain attempts to make a break for it.
Davies and McMurtry work to keep the cargo freighter from moving, both of them attempting to override the captain’s commands via their cabin consoles. Since the ether-jump drive is out of order, Davies does not have access to his usual lock-out mechanism.
At least it would seem Davies was correct when he believed the Onyx engineer was not part of the captain’s scheme, since he is also actively working to help disable the ship.
Davies contacts me via a voice call, and I answer. “Love, do not—”
“Shut up, and listen to me,” he says. “I love you, and in case this goes—”
Silence.
“Davies?”
The connection has ended. I try to call him back.
Then, on the large fore-center vid screen, we see an explosion near the landing bay where the teams were attempting to dock. Horror washes through me as, on the bridge around me, everyone freezes momentarily before all hell breaks loose.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Davies
My elation to see my sensors freaking light up like fireworks when Dr. H’looder’s ship suddenly jumps in close by—meaning I’llfinallybe able to talk real-time with Olarte if they are on board, and I’m praying they are on board—is quickly short-circuited.
Through the control panel in my cabin, I can monitor the inbound vid call from H’looder’s ship, which the captain takes on the bridge.
Annnd it’s not going well.
Atall.
Maxim Colonies has chimed in, ordering Captain Xhogrhan to let H’looder’s ether-jump engineers take a stab at fixing our ether-jump engine’s “problem,” and give us a jump-tow to port, if necessary.
Then I receive a real-time text directly from Olarte’s personal com, and I realize my big green dude has ridden in to my rescue. They quickly tell me the plan that’s underway.
I know the captain’s now a little too distracted to eavesdrop on me and McMurtry, so I call the Onyx on his com unit as I’m punching through my cabin console settings with my stylus and trying to find some sort of workaround to bypass the bullshit they’ve installed in the system. McMurtry’s also elated to hear there’s a rescue plan in place.
As an afterthought, I reach over and punch the manual override lock button to seal myself in my cabin. Somehow, I doubt they’ve overridden that particular privacy feature as part of them fucking with the ship’s systems, and I don’t want to suddenly end up a hostage pawn in this mess.
“Dude, I don’t have access to my nav lockout function,” I tell McMurtry. “Can you get that mode up and running for me? I can shut everything down from here, if you can.”
“Negative, Davies. With the ether-jump engine down, that option is off-line.”
