“What’s the size of the vessel approaching?” Hal asked.
“Battleship size, but that doesn’t mean anything right now,” Voa answered.
That was true enough, although somehow Hal guessed it really was a battleship approaching, given they were on the wrong side of the line.
Yiko hailed his earpiece. “We’re in.”
“Reverse,” Hal ordered.
Chel wasted no time, shoving them back, and as the Garmman battleship theCiollaflew toward them at top speed, they slid across the line.
“Stop.” Hal studied theCiollaas it shot forward, effectively charging them. Whoever was driving was going to cross the line into Grihan air space.
“They’re changing trajectory, moving around the invisible runners,” Voa said softly.
Hal had noticed that, too.
They’d also slowed down.
Then, to prevent a breach of the space boundary, the Garmman put theCiollainto reverse for a moment or two, and then let it hang, diagonal to theIllium, but looking almost close enough for him to reach out and touch.
“They’re hailing us,” Gerbardi said.
“I know how they made the runner look bigger.” Yiko’s voice came through his ear piece.
“How?” he asked.
“Tiny repeaters floating around the runner, creating what looks like a solid surface to our scanners. Again, very low tech but extremely effective.” Yiko sounded thrilled.
“Thanks. Get as much information off the runner as you can, and find out if there’s anyone inside. Tell me immediately if there is.”
“Will do.” Yiko cut off.
Hal looked over at Gerbardi. “Put the Garmman through.”
The captain of theCiollalooked unhappy. “This is Captain Hunner of the Garmman fleet. You have something of ours, Captain. And you could only have gotten it by crossing into our air space.”
“My apologies, Captain Hunner. I’m Captain Vakeri of Grih Battle Center.” Hal gave a serious nod. “We came across what seemed to our scanners to be four dead runners. Obviously we were seriously concerned about the life and health of those onboard when we had no response to our hails, and given we’re allies, we felt it was our duty to immediately move the short distance across and check what was happening. As we couldn’t find a way in, we thought the safest way to check on the wellbeing of any crew was to bring what we could onboard our vessel. We’d only managed to get the first one in before we picked up your approach.”
“The wellbeing . . .” Hunner stuttered to a halt.
Hal hoped Chel had his game face on, because his First Officer was holding himself stiff with surprise at the tack Hal had taken.
“We’ll be happy to return the runner immediately. I don’t think we’ve even had time yet to ascertain if anyone’s onboard, but I can understand you’re better able to deal with Garmman in need of medical attention than we are.” Hal clasped his hands behind his back.
“Appreciated.” Hunner cleared his throat.
“I’m curious, we didn’t pick up a distress signal, simply the presence of the runners and no signal at all. Did they signal you to their position earlier?” Hal asked.
Hunner paused for a long time. “No, they floated from their original position and we were scanning for their location.”
“I see. I’ll have my chief engineer tow the runner out to you, if you like?” Hal kept his expression bland.
“We can meet them halfway and take over the tow,” Hunner said.
“That’s fine, we’ll send it out when your tow vessel is ready.” Hal smiled. “I hope everyone who may be onboard is all right.”
Hunner merely inclined his head and cut off the feed.
