“We now have a common enemy.” Shank handed over the data pad for the three of them to read. Becca held it, and the other two read over her shoulders.
“They could really damage a ship if they fired on it while it was running the hyperdrive,” Becca said softly. Either the woman had no idea what she was looking at, or she had a real knack for understatement.
“It’d destroy the ship,” Ben agreed, “and Command knows it. That’s an old marine trick when you’re in the field. If you have one weapon left, you hide in the dark, power down everything including life support, and then wait for the enemy to charge hyperdrive engines. They won’t even try until they think the battlefield is clear, but you hit them with one good blast after they have those engines up to full speed, and you’ll take out a ship a hundred times larger than you.”
Shank looked at Ben like he’d lost his mind. “Only a Nicve marine would be stupid enough to try that, you know.”
Allie nodded. “They have a reputation for being suicidally determined to complete their missions for a reason. However, these people have kids, and I would rather avoid getting their ship blown up.”
“I second that,” Caj said. “If it comes down to it, I’m sorry, but I can’t put my grandchildren in danger to help you.”
“If you did, I’d call you a sociopath,” Allie said. “Trust me, we understand. What I don’t get is why Command is going out of their way to go after five AWOL soldiers who might be kidnap victims rather than on the run. That’s why we used the whole bar fight...to complicate the issue so they couldn’t figure out which office to send our paperwork to.” Allie suspected that common grunts who got kidnapped didn’t rank very high in Command priorities.
“We’re taking a slip out,” Shank said firmly. Allie watched as Shank and Caj shared a silent moment. Worry, surprise, distress—it all passed back and forth between them.
“A slip?” Ben asked.
“It’s a type of ship,” Shank explained, “although we don’t call it a ship because calling something a slip ship is just inviting trouble.”
Caj said, “If your mother doesn’t approve—”
“She can deal. We’re taking a slip,” Shank said twice as firmly.
Allie could feel the danger here, and she stepped to Shank’s side. “Okay, slow down and explain what a slip is. I’m a nav, and I’ve never heard of that kind of ship.” Allie could assume it was a hyperspace ship because having Caj drop them off in normal space without a hyperdrive would be a little like choosing the agonizingly slow death of starvation and cold over a quick bullet to the brain. Other than that, she had no idea what a slip might be or why Shank’s mother wouldn’t approve.
Ben watched the interactions curiously, but he’d gone silent, and Becca pressed close to his side.
“It uses technology not known outside the families,” Caj finally said.
Ben sucked air through his teeth.
“Care to share with the class?” Allie asked him.
After a quick grimace, Ben nodded. “People kill to keep technology secrets. I don’t suppose the families are any different from the rest of the human race.” He looked right at Caj.
“And that’s why I would rather you not get a close look at it. You’re asking us to put a lot of faith on your friendship with Shank.”
“No,” Shank said, “we aren’t. These are my people as surely as you and Vi are, and my mother has to recognize that.”
“No,” Caj said gently, “she doesn’t, and she’s not particularly rational when it comes to you. You remind her too much of your father, and she never forgave him for getting himself killed.”
“They’re my people,” Shank repeated. He reached out and slipped his arm around Allie’s waist.
“Look, we knew about danger walking into this,” Allie said, “and I am not thrilled about the idea of Shank’s mother quoting state secrets as a reason for a formal execution, but I don’t see a lot of choices here. If you wait until you get to the next dock, Command or the local bounty hunters will pick us up. If we drop out of hyperspace, we have a shot. And we need to do this fast. The second we drop, you know we’re going to have Command ships investigating. We need to get as far away from each other as possible.” Allie had already started to mentally calculate how long it would take some sharp-eyed nav to spot the burst of a ship dropping out of hyperspace. Doing it in the black would catch someone’s eye, but if a slip was fast enough, the five of them could lose themselves before anyone showed up to investigate.
“If we stop, Command will take us in,” Caj said. “That’s all the evidence they’ll need to confiscate our ship, and then what do we have?”
“So what’s the solution?” Allie demanded. “Letting Command win?”
Caj looked to Shank. “This is your call, but I’m warning you that it’s dangerous.”
“I’ll take the risk for my people,” Shank said. He turned to the rest of them, giving Caj the cold shoulder. “A slip is used to transfer contraband from ship to ship. We don’t leave hyperdrive. We use a supercharged surge in theLincoln’s engines to create a larger bubble, and then the slip has a small hyperdrive capable of riding the edge of that bubble until we slowly pull away from theLincoln’s trajectory.”
Allie shook her head. “That’s impossible. You can’t split a hyperspace window.”
“Yeah, you can.” Shank tightened his hand on her arm.
“And that’s information worth killing for,” Ben said. Becca had lost most of the color from her face, and Allie felt a little weak in the knees.
