Ghost Jumper (Interstellar Getaway Pilot Book 2), page 4
All true. So how come I felt like someone had just walked over my grave?
The hover truck screeched to a stop a few meters away. The rear door slid up, and Xiri leapt out. Brubaker climbed out of the front seat, followed by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Max was limping and clutching his chest.
Xiri and Brubaker lowered an antigrav sled from the rear of the truck. I could see the cargo lying on top, covered by a dirty canvas tarp. They sprinted for the rear bay, pulling the sled along with them.
Xiri’s voice crackled in my ear. “We’re in! Max got hit. He needs medical attention!”
My hand hovered over the throttle lever, but then I paused. Rules were rules.
“Stand by,” I said.
“Stand by?” It was Brubaker again. "Are you flarging crazy?"
I cut the signal and turned to Baxter. “Run a bioscan on the cargo bay.”
Baxter made a series of low grunts as he interfaced with the ship’s sensors. I kept my eyes focused out the cockpit window, expecting to see a squad of police skimmers come flying in at any second.
Baxter barked, confirming the only life signs aboard were our passengers.
“Brace for takeoff,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
I kicked the throttle to max, and the engines roared like an angry beast. Locking the wings into flight position, I yanked up on the stick. It wasn’t the smoothest takeoff, but it sure was fast. Within seconds, we were streaking away from the landing pad. The rear ramp wasn’t even fully closed yet. I unbuckled my harness and turned to Baxter, bracing myself in the shaking cockpit with one arm on the roof.
“Hold her steady and follow the standard traffic paths,” I ordered. “Keep transmitting the clearance codes.”
Baxter barked affirmative. I exited the cockpit and climbed down a ladder to the lower decks. The ship was shaking and rumbling around me, and I could see the sidewalls buckle a bit. Had to fix those welds one of these days.
The cargo bay doors at the end of the corridor slid open. Brubaker stumbled in, gun in hand. His eyes were barely blue now. They were almost entirely black, and the veins on his neck looked like hydraulic hoses.
“Mother flarging Joven!” he screamed, pounding the wall. “That piece of… He’s dead! I swear, I will rip out his goddamn throat the next time I see him!”
He kept ranting as Xiri and Bob hobbled in, Max slung between them. He was pale, and his hair hung in his face. His eyelids twitched and fluttered. Something had burned a nasty black hole through his shirt. I could see where the synthetic fabric had melted and fused to his skin.
“Come on, this way!” I shouted as I opened a door in the side of the corridor. The lights flickered on, and a tiny sick bay hummed to life. It wasn’t much, just a scanning table and a medtek unit hanging from a cluster of wires and hoses on the ceiling. “Get him on the table! Move!”
Bob and Xiri stumbled into the bay and laid Max on the slab. Brubaker stood just outside the open door. He looked pale, shaken. Based on what Joven had told me, I was sure he had seen his fill of rooms like this.
The table hummed to life as soon as Max’s body hit the scanning bed. The medtek claw lowered, its multiple limbs flexing in the air. It looked like a giant metal spider descending from a web.
“Scanning,” the computer said in a harsh electronic voice. “Detecting severe particle beam burns and internal organ trauma. Recommend immediate hospitalization.”
“Not an option,” I snapped. “Just stabilize him for now.”
As the robotic limbs prepped a series of injections and antibiotic sprays, Baxter barked in my ear again. There was a problem. I narrowed my eyes, listening, then turned to Brubaker. He was still standing in the hall, just outside the tiny sick bay.
“What the hell happened down there?” I asked.
He pounded the wall with his fist again. “Joven flarged us! He swore there’d be minimal security.”
I raised a single eyebrow. “And?”
He glared at me with that manic stare of his. “The guy had a fucking private army! LRAD sonic security perimeter activated on the way out. Scrambled our nervous systems, made us dizzy, sick. We barely made it off site before the shooting started.” He shook his head and took a deep breath. Then he closed his eyes. A second later, he opened them again. They were back to baby blue.
“Why?” he asked. “What’s it to you?”
I brushed past him, heading back to the cockpit. “Someone’s following us.”
Xiri chased me out into the corridor. She pulled off her cap, letting her dark hair spill down to her shoulders. Then she wedged it back on her head, brim pointing backwards. “What do you mean? Who’s following us? The police?”
I climbed up the ladder to the cockpit. “If we’re lucky, yeah.”
I glanced down at her. She was staring at me, her big black eyes wide with fear. “And if we’re unlucky?” she asked.
I didn’t bother answering. She was smart enough to figure it out on her own. We both knew the worst-case scenario.
She muttered an alien curse under her breath then followed me up the ladder.
CHAPTER FIVE
Xiri leaned over my chair as I strapped myself into my seat. Baxter greeted her with a friendly grunt. He tilted his head as she turned to face him.
“Is this… is this your copilot?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I flicked a switch, calling up the tactical display. It glowed to life, hovering in the air over my control panel. “His name is Baxter.”
She gave me a confused look. “Why is your copilot a synth dog?”
“Because a real dog can’t interface with the ship’s computer.”
Her dark eyes blinked, making her look even more bewildered. “But why does it have to look like a dog at all?”
I shrugged. “Why does your boss look like a shaved gorilla on steroids?”
“I don't know what a gorilla is. And Brubaker’s not my boss,” she snapped.
I flashed her a quick grin. “But you knew who I was talking about.”
“What the flarg is going on? Is it the cops, or…” Brubaker’s voice trailed off as he entered the cockpit and saw Baxter. “Is that a robot—”
“Yes, it’s a synth dog.” I glanced at him over my shoulder and pressed a button. A pair of crash seats unfolded from the wall. “Have a seat and make yourselves useful. Fire-suppressor units are in the compartment over your head. If those power conduits next to you catch fire, grab ’em and start spraying.”
“Does that happen often?” Xiri asked as she strapped herself into one of the tiny chairs.
“Define ‘often.’”
“Looks like Joven was wrong about a lot of things,” Brubaker grumbled.
I focused my attention on the tactical display. “Keep talking like that, and you might hurt Baxter’s feelings."
Three tiny red dots blinked on the holoscreen. There were at least fifty ships flying around us. We were on a standard escape vector, heading into high orbit where the Network gates were located. It was more than just a simple matter of pointing the ship’s nose up and gunning it. Most planets had set air traffic patterns to manage the chaos and prevent accidents. Apparently, airborne collisions were bad for business. Go figure.
But those three dots on tactical were ships Baxter had tagged for rapid acceleration and suspicious maneuvers. They weren’t breaking out of the traffic pattern yet. But they sure looked like they were trying to keep up with us.
I increased thrust, pulling up alongside a medium cargo cruiser. It was weighed down with metal containers magnetically attached to its hull. The massive vessel loomed in the side windows as I glanced at my display. The three red dots increased their speed as well, passing other ships in the lineup. Working the controls in silence, I dropped altitude and gently nudged the Hawk under the larger ship. A shadow fell over the bridge as the cargo vessel’s hull blotted out the sun overhead.
One of the red dots zipped over the big ship. The other two hung back. Baxter barked a warning.
“They’re scanning the ship above us,” I said in a calm voice.
“What does that mean?” Brubaker asked, peering up at the massive ship hovering above us.
“It means they’re definitely looking for us.” I kept my eyes on the display. “Baxter, you get a visual on these guys yet?”
After a few concerned whines, the synth dog’s eyes pulsed with light. He was matching the ships’ transponder codes to the planetary data stream, scraping their registration info. A new hologram glowed to life between our control stations. It showed a sleek black ship, all sweeping curves and alien lines.
“That’s not a police cruiser,” Xiri murmured, leaning forward in her seat to inspect the hologram.
I squinted at the image. The vessels were unmarked, but I was familiar with the design. I tapped the holodisplay, calling up more detail.
“I’ve seen ships like that before.” I leaned back in my chair as a second image flickered to life. It was old footage from the war. A recording from my Trident fighter’s visual sensors, the data feed from the last battle, right before they declared the truce.
Right before Laura…
“It’s the same!” Xiri exclaimed. “What is it?”
“Vrell Interceptor.” I checked the display. The two ships to our rear were closing in. “Must be decommissioned units left over from the war.”
Brubaker chuckled, but I could tell he was thinking it over. “Come on, you’re just getting jitters.”
I glared at him over my shoulder. “I’ve seen those ships up close, in combat. Believe me, I wish I was wrong. But I’m not.”
“Cops don’t fly space fighters,” Xiri said in a hushed voice. “Not planetary security, anyway.”
“No,” I replied. “But the Syndicate does.”
“What kind of firepower is this ship of yours packing?” Brubaker asked. “You know, just in case.”
I ignored him. The Shadow Hawk wasn’t completely defenseless, but I didn’t want Brubaker getting any ideas. To guys like him, a gun was a hammer, and every problem was a nail. The Hawk was built for speed, not combat. As far as I was concerned, getting into a slugfest with military star fighters was a quick ticket to the cold last dance.
The two blinking dots moved closer. They’d be in visual range any second. My fingers flew over the control panel, calling up maps of the area. Elysium was a tropical paradise planet. There were minimal structures on the surface, but hundreds of floating cities and luxury resorts hovered in the upper atmosphere.
Baxter informed me we were being scanned. You didn’t need a neural implant to detect the fear in his whines and growls.
I grabbed the control sticks and took a deep breath. “They know we’re here. Hang on to—”
They opened fire before I could finish my sentence. Glowing energy beams streaked past the Shadow Hawk, striking the cargo vessel above us. A container ruptured, and a rain of glowing children’s toys pelted the cockpit. I hit the brake flaps and decreased altitude, scattering the colorful alien dolls into the stratosphere.
The Hawk shuddered as I threw her into a tight banked turn. I was fighting against the dense atmosphere, and it felt like trying to swing a tennis racket through a swimming pool. The drag was holding us back, slowing us down. But I pulled off the high-G maneuver and sped out of the traffic pattern, heading toward one of the floating cities in the distance.
Someone retched behind me. I slammed a glowing button on the console, and a biowaste container emerged from the wall between Xiri and Brubaker’s seat. I heard the splash of liquid hitting the deck.
“Too late,” Brubaker gasped.
Alarms wailed, and more energy beams crisscrossed through the air. I swung the ship left and right, struggling to dodge the cannon fire. Xiri gasped as the hull shuddered and we lost more altitude. The cockpit lights flickered, and sparks cascaded from the patched wires.
“They grazed the starboard wing,” I shouted. “Nothing to worry about. Baxter’s damage-control algorithm will compensate.”
“That was just a graze?” she screamed. “What does a direct hit feel like?”
Another glowing barrage shot past the windows. A deafening roar filled the cockpit, and the lights went dark. I felt my stomach churn as we dropped through the air, plummeting toward the planet’s surface.
“Kinda like that!” I shouted. A burst of heat warmed my back. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw flames leap from the patch bay. But the inertia of our power dive kept Xiri and Brubaker pinned in their seats. They couldn’t reach the fire suppressors.
Between Baxter’s barking and the wailing alarms, I could barely hear myself think. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes again, I knew what I had to do.
I knew the ship's controls like the back of my hand. I didn’t even look to see what switches I was throwing or where I was stealing power from. All that mattered was getting the engines back online. I deactivated a few redundant systems and then punched the main power again. Nothing happened. We were still falling.
I noticed a tiny light in the corner of my eye, a red button flickering on the power relay panel above my seat. I reached up and hit it. The engines roared to life, and the ship lurched forward. The lights came on with a low hum. We were back in business.
I spun the Shadow Hawk into a three-sixty spiral as I climbed back up, gaining altitude. The floating city rushed closer. Hundreds of buildings reached up from the antigravity platform, thin slivers of metal and concrete piercing the pink bands of clouds.
The stench of smoke and ionized air assaulted my nostrils. “Xiri, the patch bay is burning! Put it out, or the next time we fall, we don’t come back up!”
She leapt from her chair and tossed a maintenance panel aside. Grabbing the tiny green canister, she blasted the flames with a burst of freezing gas.
The buildings loomed before us, vast canyons of metal and glass submerged in the misty atmosphere. I plunged beneath the clouds and tilted the ship on its side. We darted between two rows of skyscrapers. The buildings were so close, I could see the terrified faces of wealthy Dranth tourists through the windows.
A warning alarm echoed through the smoky cockpit. Targeting systems were locking on to the Hawk. I muttered a curse as I darted left, swooping between another block of buildings. I leveled the ship out as we emerged over a city park. Arched walkways and lev-train tubes stretched over the verdant alien landscape. I dove the ship under one of the bridges as the people on the walkway gasped and pointed. We streaked under them then climbed up again, narrowly missing a lev-train as it tore past the cockpit windows.
Brubaker uttered a manic laugh. “I was wrong about you, kid. You’re a hell of a pilot.”
Before I could answer, the cockpit lit up. Energy beams flashed into the distance, and an explosion filled the air ahead of us. I narrowed my eyes. As the smoke cleared, I could just make out a mangled lev-train tube hanging over the vegetation below. The enemy's shots had missed the Hawk but disintegrated a section of the tunnel. Glancing to my right, I saw a blur of motion. A train was racing toward the gap.
“Baxter, send a transmission to that train! Priority one—tell them the tunnel’s out!”
Baxter’s eyes blinked and flashed. A second later, his barks filtered through my neural implant. Sparks leapt from the guide rail as the train’s AI hit the brakes.
But there was no way it was going to stop in time.
CHAPTER SIX
According to Baxter, the train was unmanned, delivering supplies to the resort buildings. I threw the ship into a steep dive, swooping toward the mangled tunnel.
Xiri gasped. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to miss a train,” I replied.
The lev-train screamed closer. I could see the lights on the engine car. Sparks shot from the guide rail, and plasma gas vented from the sides as emergency brake systems struggled to slow it down. But it was too big and going too fast to stop in time.
The targeting alarm wailed again. One of the enemy fighters was right on our tail. I wagged the ship’s wings, trying to throw off our pursuer’s aim. More glowing beams sliced overhead, missing us by less than a meter.
The gap in the tunnel was just ahead of us now. I could see the glowing metal fibers and the melted transparent tube walls. There was a thirty-meter gap in the center where our enemy's cannon fire had melted clean through, causing the tunnel section to collapse.
Xiri stared at the enemy’s position on the holodisplay. "They’re getting closer!"
I glanced at the display. “That’s what I’m counting on.”
My attention returned to the approaching train. I tilted the ship vertically. Xiri held her breath and grabbed her seat, but Brubaker just kept laughing. At least one of us was having a good time.
The echo of the train was deafening as we shot through the collapsed tunnel. The oncoming vehicle pushed a supersonic wall of air in our direction. The headlamp on the train blazed through the windows, filling the cockpit with blinding red light. Then we were through. I started to pull up, watching as one of the little red dots increased speed.
It was too close to clear the tunnel, so the Vrell ship tried to make it through the collapsed section after us. It almost cleared the gap. Almost but not quite.
The rampaging lev-train rammed into the Interceptor's tail section, tearing the ship in half. Another explosion filled the tube, and the tunnel's support structure collapsed. The train plummeted to the platform below as the burning remains of the fighter spun through the air. The mangled hull struck a nearby building and exploded, sending a shower of glass and metal into the street. The falling train cars tore deep gouges in the park, launching a barrage of dirt and alien vegetation into the air.
The other two ships managed to adjust their course. They swooped over the collapsed tunnel and opened fire. The cockpit lights flickered again as more beams grazed the hull.
A green light flashed on the console. I glanced at the holodisplay. The Ghost Drive was at ninety percent!
