Chapter 17: Tale 2, Ch 5: Malrigged Maneuvers

“To da planet?” Mic asked.

“Yes, we’re going to land. Hopefully they’ll follow us so we can disembark and talk on the surface,” Chance said. He thought it was a good plan. It was also the best thing he could come up with. He sweated, hoping the other ship would want to follow peacefully, and that they wouldn’t harm them once they got on Alturin.

“Increasing power to da planetary engines,” Mic said and, delicately handled the controls.

Bound turned toward Alturin and prepared to enter its atmosphere. Chance showed no expression as he kept a monitor locked on to the other ship’s image. He stared it up and down, zooming this little image in and out, to see if he could find any weapons.

Suddenly, a beeping sounded from Jacobson’s panel. “Captain, I’m reading major power increases all over their vessel,” Jacobson said, masking concern with a dutiful tone. “Including what I think are power barriers.”

“Keep position, Mic,” Chance said, briefly forgetting formality. “Is the power increase their planetary engines?”

“I can’t tell, sir. But they’re not moving,” Jacobson said.

Chance frowned at his panel. What do you want, he thought as he stared at the ship on his monitor. It was turning toward Bound but not making a move in any direction. They could be preparing to follow or they could be preparing to attack.

“If there’s anything about this ship, anything at all, Corrin,” Chance said, clenching his fists and pausing briefly, “please tell me so I don’t do something stupid.”

The Prophet eyed Chance, then shifted to the ship and back again. For the first time, Chance saw indecision in her eyes. It was strange, as if a sense of duty was conflicting with what she wanted to do. She worked her mouth, as if something was withholding the words, and said, “I… the… you see…”

Suddenly a thick blue light shot from the alien ship. It was a steady beam that hit Bound before Mic had a chance to maneuver. The steady pilot did not wait for the order to move and twirled Bound out of the beam.

The temporary shift in gravity nearly made Chance stumble over, but he and the rest of the crew kept their balance as he tried to assess the situation. “Commander!” Chance shouted as he scanned his monitors for what had happened.

“Power barriers weakened slightly, holding,” Jacobson said, answering Chance’s unworded question as she did a quick diagnostic. The beam kept firing at them as they dodged.

“Take us to the surface, Mic! We’ll lose them in the atmosphere,” Chance said, trying to remain calm. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Corrin. She had been so resolute before. Now she was wide-eyed.

As Chance saw the reports on his monitors, he found that the beam was only hitting them slightly. It was a constant pillar of light that the ship tilted in their direction. As good a pilot as Mic was, it was impossible to avoid at all times. But the barriers were taking very minor damage from it. Chance figured their weapons must not be very powerful. He began to doubt if this was even a weapon.

Mic dodged the beam and turned the ship toward Alturin. Chance took engine control like they’d done in the cluster. They reached the planet and prepared to break the atmosphere. The other, much bigger ship sped along behind them.

“Prepare max speed!” Chance yelled.

Jacobson shouted, “Captain, reading power increases—”

A flash of bright, red light cut Jacobson off. It crossed in front of the ship and blazed with a white afterglow. Chance wished he’d been wrong. He knew they had better weapons.

“Break in now!” Chance yelled.

A massive jolt knocked half the crew off their feet as Bound hit the planet’s thick atmosphere. Chance fell face first into his monitors. He raised his head to see a smudge of blood on them. The second bright flash behind Bound told him the other ship was no longer fooling around.

Flames licked the viewing window as Bound passed through the upper layers of oxygen. All Fleet vessels were designed with power barriers to easily take atmosphere entry damage. This worked with weapons fire too but not as well. Since no wars had been fought since Home discovered interplanetary travel, powerful weapons barriers weren’t considered necessary. Mic would have maneuvered if he could, but a change of course passing through this thick of atmosphere would have dropped them to the ground like a rock. This was why they made such an easy target.

The unknown craft had followed them and was trailing behind. It fired one solid shot at Bound and hit the top of the ship directly. A flashing light told Chance they’d taken damage. The spinning of the ship and the gravity pulling him to the floor, however, made the warning lights unnecessary.

The force of the impact knocked Bound into an uncontrolled dive. Chance had to hold on to his monitors to stay upright while everyone else fell, sprawled on the floor. Everyone but Mic, that is. Chance prayed the man was as good a pilot as he boasted.

“Max speed!” Chance shouted, and was barely able to send the command into his monitors.

Bound spun even faster. It spun and spun and spun, and as the ground in the window raced forward, Mic was able to realign. With the increased power to the engines, he countered the gravity and shifted directions, pulling out of the dive just under half a mile in the air.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

The throne-like ship was still following. Almost as if it had been waiting for them to realign, it fired three shots. All of these Mic dodged as he plunged into a controlled dive to skim the surface.

“Jacobson!” Chance shouted.

The commander had gotten up only seconds before, strapping into her pulled-out seat like the rest of the crew. “Barriers reduced to half, sir! Recharging!” she said.

“Reroute power! Myers! I want that drive code in now. Mic! Hold them off long enough to get us ready,” Chance said as another beam burned in his eyes, narrowly missing outside the window.

“Sir, I’m reading a shortage in the cortex shifters! I think they’ve fried!” Myers shouted.

Chance would have slammed his fists into his monitors, but a quick spin from Mic sent him tumbling. The one who picked him up was not whom he had expected.

Corrin, forgotten till then, grabbed him with soft but stone-firm hands and hoisted him upright. “Captain,” she said, “I have to tell you—”

“No time,” Chance said without pause. “Mic, get us away from this planet now!” Chance wiped the blood from his mouth as he gave the pilot all the power Bound could muster. He opened communication with Mechanics. “Fix the drive now!”

Mic shifted and went into a straight climb with blasts flaring all around. Chance thought a ship that size couldn’t have very good vertical power in air. If they could break straight up, something Bound could do easily with its small size, and get into space, Bound might have a chance to outrun the bulky craft and get the drive fixed.

“Captain, listen to me!” Corrin shouted. All of her former serenity was gone as she tried to get Chance’s attention. “This is not what it seems! I can’t help you if you don’t figure out what’s at stake here!”

“Our lives are at stake, Corrin!” Chance replied. “I could use your shielding if you can make one that big.”

Corrin nearly trembled “I can’t interfere, not unless it’s—”

“Then get out of my Control Room!”

They neared the break in the atmosphere. Chance was right. The ship wasn’t able to follow as fast and less shots came near them. They were gaining the distance they needed. Corrin stood still, though, biting her lip.

“If you won’t help then at least tell me how I can fix the drive,” Chance said with as much calm as he could muster.

The shots stopped and Mic was able to devote all his attention to going straight and fast.

Corrin tried to speak calmly and said, “Captain, you’re not—”

“Scan Bound now or shift off my ship!” Chance demanded.

Corrin gave him one of those looks, despite the fearful situation, that she was not going to be ordered around.

“You should know how to fix it better than I, Captain Miles,” Corrin said.

“Okay,” Chance said, and ran to the door.

“What are you doing?” Corrin asked as Bound reached the starry blackness of space.

“I’m going to fix the drive. Jacobson, do as I would,” Chance said.

Chance closed the door with a slam and raced down the corridor. He hoped Corrin didn’t touch anything while he was away.

Chance didn’t have much time. He got to the elevator and opened a small door next to it. There was a pole there that went all the way down to Mechanics, meant for emergencies to get to life rockets. He slid down and hit the floor running. On his way, he grabbed a tool kit from a passing mechanic. The woman looked a little irritated but realized it was Chance and irritation turned to confusion, then to extreme worry.

Chance knew the drive system better than anyone. He could fix it. “You should have waited,” Chance told himself as he ran. “You should have turned back but your foolishness wouldn’t let you resist.” Now if he didn’t fix his mistake, Bound would be lost.

Chance reached the drive system, ducking under a pipe to get there, and half a dozen crew members were already there. “Out of the way,” Chance said, and bent down to an already open panel. He practically shoved people out of his way and examined the system. It was in good order, but the shifters were fried. The damage from the cluster had left them vulnerable. But if he simply rerouted power in a way to bypass certain systems, he could still activate the drive.

“Sir, the shifters are fried. It’ll take hours to install new ones, there’s nothing to it,” Mechanic Greem said, looking like she’d been sweating very hard.

“Get me the components from the comm. I can malrig a cortex shifter,” Chance said. Malrig was a term for making something up on the spot, named for a very unlucky pilot who’d unwillingly perfected the technique.

Two men ran off. They knew Chance could turn a pen into a scanner relay if he tried hard enough, and were used to this treatment. In short order, Chance had finished his bypassing in the system.

I have to do this, Chance thought, ignoring the sweat mopping his hair. I can’t let foolish adventurism kill these people. What did Corrin want? Why is she even on this mission?

The dredger returned, and Chance quickly started his malrig. They had another comm system anyway, so using this one wasn’t a loss.

“We’re ready up here,” Myers’s voice said over the intercom. “Hurry, though. The ship’s about close enough to fire again.”

“Captain there is another way than fleeing,” Corrin’s voice said. Chance didn’t stop, but he listened closely. “We have to talk to them.”

Chance nearly laughed. “We tried that,” he said. “It didn’t work.” If this was what she wanted to say then Chance was glad he had ignored her.

“Yes, but captain—” A quick code into the drive panel shut off the intercom. He needed to conserve power anyway.

Chance had nearly finished when Bound rocked madly. He almost dropped his work and was barely able to keep from breaking it. The mechanics grabbed onto pieces of machines to keep their balance.

So the ship’s caught up, Chance thought as he ignored the sting of sweat in his eyes. Now he was out of time.

“Strap in!” Chance yelled to the other mechanics. They couldn’t help any further and obeyed without hesitation, going to the small hole in Mechanics where they pulled out straps from the wall.

Chance had just about finished putting in his malrigged cortex shifters when Mic pulled a maneuver that threw him on his face again. Bound was now fighting for its life and he could see on the flashing display lights of the panel next to him in, the power barrier generator panel, that shots were coming in like rain.

Suddenly the malrigged cortex shifter in his hand flashed with a bright light and a blast of electricity shot him back. He flew three feet and fell against a panel on the other side of the room, his face slightly charred and the panel with a crunched dent in it. He rolled forward from a maneuver and saw that the open drive panel was completely burnt out. They’d have to land to install the backup.

Chance cursed and slammed his fist on the ground as he heard the power barriers low warning flashing from the generator display. Running was now out of the question. The only other option was to surrender. But if Bound could have done that they’d have talked before the fight started.

It wasn’t much of a fight, Chance thought, and looked at the huge fusion generator glowing in front of him on its pedestal, taking up half of mechanics. He had an idea.

Chance turned on the intercom and said, “Mic, attack them now!”

“Captain?” Mic asked.

“Attack! Turn around and attack!