Drifter

Eli’s attention switched between two screens.

On one screen, the ship’s scanner data. At that moment, it was close to blank. A few small gas clouds, a scattering of small asteroids, and the wreckage of a battle carrier. From what he could tell, it was very old, and had been picked clean by scavengers long ago.

On the other screen, green things danced and made merry under the light of a magenta sun. Even with the tadvash, Eli struggled to follow the show’s plot, was unsure if it even had one.

He glanced at another screen, double checking that his transponder had been disabled. Then he picked up a slice of the food he had prepared in the ship’s little galley.

He had purchased the item because it looked like a pizza and because the food scanner said that it wouldn’t kill him, but mostly because it looked like a pizza.

It did not taste like pizza. Eli struggled to figure out what it did taste like. He finally decided that it was the nasty chemically taste of artificial grape.

The show came to an end. He checked the scanner screen again. No patrols. No sign of his contact either. Letting out a sign of frustration, he queued up a few songs that he hadn’t heard yet.

Loud chirps interrupted the music. Red flashes across the scanner monitor. A vessel had dropped out of hyperspace. It wasn’t near the local hyperspace lane. Leaving the hyperspace lanes was something he had been told not to ever so much as consider doing. Many spacers believed that it led to a fate worse than death.

The thing was a bulk freighter, easily a dozen times bigger than his craft.

The com came to life, “Attention, unknown craft, I fear the magic dragon.”

Eli gave them the countersign, “The twenty eyes are always open.”

“Hard copy. Prepare to dock.”

***

Strange shapes were wrapped in worn clothing. Odd appendages hovered near holsters and sheaths. The subdued paint jobs on their battle-damaged armor clashed with brightly colored skin and scales, even feathers. Their eyes and other sense organs moved around in shifty ways. Several of them had shield projectors.

The retractable docking tunnel was meant for the transfer of personnel. The process of wrestling the cargo down the tunnel in zero-G was long and frustrating. Dozens of nondescript plastic boxes and metal cases were slowly but surely brought in and sat on an empty pallet.

“No crew? It’s just you?” one of them asked, eyeing his surroundings. His thin face was a dark shade of blue, his eyes completely black. He wore what looked like a flight suit, with a few seemingly random pieces of armor over it.

Eli didn’t reply.

A beeping sound came from one of them. She pushed a button on her wrist, “Yes.”

“We’ve got incoming! It’s a Bharan navy strike cruiser!”

“We paid them off!” she shouted back.

“They’re saying that it wasn’t enough.”

She let out a string of curse words, the translator flawlessly transforming the nonsense into foul concepts. She started moving toward the docking arm, motioning for her crew to follow. Eli waited until they had all made their way out of the cargo hold. Then he ran to the cockpit.

A quick check of the scanner screen confirmed the presence of a strike cruiser. The thing was a sleek collection of sensor systems, engines, and guns. A trio of fighter craft launched out of a little hangar bay.

Eli checked the internal cameras. The last of the freighter’s crew started the climb up the docking arm. He watched and waited. The fighters closed in. The cruiser sent out a series of increasingly hostile messages, demanding compliance. Hidden gunports opened all along the cargo ship’s hull and sent a barrage of light at the hostile cruiser.

The freighter disconnected and pulled away. Eli hit the switch that retracted the dock and turned to flee. He fired every engine up, going all out. Cavalier shot away from the freighter just as the fighters opened fire on it. He set course for the wreck of the carrier.

Eli took a second to make sure that the ship’s shield emitters were working properly. Then he hit the button that closed the shutters on the craft’s windows. Metal sheets slid into place, reducing the view to a narrow slit. This was made up for by the craft’s many external cameras.

The freighter exploded, the fireball expanding out like it was some force hellbent on consuming all that was or would ever be. The light silhouetted the incoming fighters.

“Unidentified craft, stop and prepare to be boarded.

Eli didn’t respond. The derelict began to get bigger. The hollow places that had once been hangars could be made out along the twisted remains of the hull. Even from that far out, he could tell that the vessel had been gutted by heavy weapons fire.

A pulse of light raced past the cockpit, a warning shot from his pursuers. They sent him another message, a final warning. Eli ignored this, focused on weaving his ship around. They took the hint. More flashes of light were sent in his direction.

Eli jinked his ship around wildly. Bolts of energy filled the space around Cavalier. They tried to lead their shots, getting near misses. Eli rapidly changed course, moving in random directions, but always keeping his craft moving in the general direction of the wreck.

A hit was absorbed by the shield. Eli looked at the indicator, despite the fact that he knew what it would show. A shield charge was gone.

They were much closer. Their shots were getting more accurate. Eli moved a panel out of the way, revealing a hidden display. An icon sat in the center, a simple representation of a spaceborne proximity mine. On its left side there was the number five. On the right there was the word arm, which Eli pressed, it changed color. Under the icon there was the word deploy. Eli straightened the craft out for a few moments and pressed the button.

One of the enemy’s shots hit Cavalier, draining one of its shield charges. One of the fighters must have struck the mine, as it exploded. The remaining two swung out wide, getting away from the rapidly expanding cloud of flames and superheated vapor.

Now the hidden display said four. Eli armed the next mine, although he would have to wait for the right opportunity to use it. They were keeping a distance, trying to keep from flying directly behind him. With the extra breathing room, he was able to reach the wreck.

Eli pointed the nose at one of the gnarled openings. At the last second, he changed course, going for another opening. The feint worked, the fighters blasted the area around the first hole to pieces, before following him into the second opening.

The interior of the wreck was a mangled mass of debris. Splayed metal plates stabbed into subsystems. The flayed remains of power systems hung open like ghoulish horror show displays. The smashed-up remnants of internal supports stretched across gaps. Eli sat about the task of maneuvering his way through that warped hellscape.

Eli aimed for a clear spot. Another hit to his shields told him that they were still on his tail. He did not dare take the time to look at the rear camera display. He weaved past a series of obstacles. Pulling back hard on the stick, he only just managed to skim along the surface of some internal section of the big ship. Then he zipped through a sequence of small gaps, rough holes in jagged sections of broken hull.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of orange light in the rear camera display. He risked a quick glance. Sure enough, one of them had lost it, crashing into a substructure.

Ahead, there was a small opening. He would have to thread the needle if he wanted to survive. But in this challenge, he saw an opportunity.

Eli weaved his way through more obstacles. The final fighter sprayed wildly, shaving off another shield charge. At last, he reached the narrow gap. He shot through the opening and hit the button that engaged the mine launcher.

The last remaining fighter maneuvered into place, saw the incoming mine, swerved out the way just in time. The pilot tried to get back into position. A wing clipped the edge of the opening. The ship spun into the wall, shattering into a hundred flaming pieces.

Eli found a breach in the dead carrier’s hull. He shot out of the metal corpse, checked the scanner. It was still just the one cruiser. Good, he could outrun it, get out of the range of its sensors and make a quick dash for one of the hyperspace lanes. As soon as he was in a safe position, he would give Kirjen and Jussco a call, let them know that one of their assets had been taken out of the game. Then he would deliver the goods.

An alarm sounded. The motion sensor he had installed in the corridor that led to the bridge had been tripped. The security camera automatically activated, one of the monitors switched to its view. The overly curious man with the blue skin was on the move, weapon in hand. He must have stowed away during the chaos.

Eli pressed the lever that moved the pilot’s seat back, simultaneously pulled the hatchet out of the sheath he had attached to the side of one of the control boxes. The intruder entered the bridge. The hand axe sailed across the room, embedding itself in his face. He toppled over backwards.