The Evolution of Vaughn, page 8
“I would say the possibility is likely.”
“Run another line of the same distance in the exact opposite direction as mine, and then another line exactly intersecting those lines in the same plane.”
A large plus sign appeared, centered on the Foger homeworld.
“Think the likelihood of Dulark Agron being this lazy is strong enough to bet my life on?” asked Vaughn.
“I am unable to gamble with the life of my crew, Sir. There is one other possibility that Dulark sent Kinfron to the same coordinates as you. If he’d planned to kill you with the coolant leak, it is likely he would want his protégée to ensure that he was successful.”
“Halle! You’re a damn genius! I love that idea. Take off. Calculate a fold to our original destination. I’ll be in the cockpit.”
Vaughn had the floor panels of the cockpit pulled apart and the sensor array in his hand when Halle next spoke. “Brace yourself for the fold.”
Vaughn slipped the array back into its cradle and grabbed onto the floor. The ship shuddered. “Come on baby, hold together.”
“I am not a baby, Sir.”
“Halle, the minute we drop out of the fold, sweep the area for ships. When you find Kinfron’s ship, lock on and dock us.”
Vaughn at on the broken captain’s chair and started typing at the control panel. “Sir, with the near object abatement cannon on manual control, I won’t be able to protect the ship from debris.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Vaughn worked on the cannon for several hours while the ship’s piloted them through the fold, before Halle said, “Sir. Ready to unfold. Brace yourself.”
Vaughn held on to the console in front of him as the ship shuddered. “Kinfron’s ship, four hundred meters at two-one-five mark seven.”
“Got it! Dock with it.” Vaughn pulled up the display, and fired the cannon. Huge blue arcs shot out of Vaughn’s ship strafing Kinfron’s vessel. The shots were carefully placed, he didn’t want to hit anything that would do significant damage, and he fired dozens of shots wildly in every direction.
“Docking, sir.”
The two ships clanged as they came together, and the docking rings sealed. “Kinfron, this is Vaughn. I’ve suffered massive computer failures. Coolant leaks all through the cockpit. Sensors malfunctioning, picking up space debris in every direction. The safest thing was to dock to keep the cannon from damaging your vessel.”
“I’ll fucking kill you, Vaughn. I’m an hour from finishing the fold calculations. When I fold, your vessel will be cut in half by the Alcubierre field and you’ll be ejected into space.” Kinfron wasn’t buying the ruse.
“You’ll be lauded a hero for saving me, Kinfron. And you’ll finally prove you’re better than me.” Vaughn played to the Foger’s ego.
“Stand back. Hold your hands where I can see them. I’ll open the hatch.”
“Halle, end Transmission and dump your core into a static crystal. Thank you for saving me. One day I’ll fix you up.”
“Done sir.” A drawer ejected from the cockpit with a single, five centimeter static crystal, containing all of this ship’s logs, including the modifications Vaughn had made.
“Shut down central core, Halle.”
Vaughn heard Kinfron’s docking ring open, and a pounding on the ring of his own ship.
“Goodbye, Halle.”
“Goodbye, Sir.”
Vaughn increased power output of the generator by five-hundred percent, stuffed his water bottle full of Argimonium sand into his pocket and walked towards the docking ring at the back of the ship. The power capacitors started buzzing as he opened the ring. Kinfron leapt through the opening and onto the mining ship, hitting Vaughn in the face. Vaughn dropped back, circling his opponent.
“Kinfron, I don’t want to fight you.”
“I want to fight you though. You’re nothing but trash to us. You think you’re equal to a foger? I’m smarter than you. I’m better than you in every way.”
Vaughn kicked the tall, skinny foger in the chest, sending him reeling backwards. “You are not, you stupid piece of shit. I am stronger than you,” he said, kicking him again. “I am way fucking faster than you,” he said, dodging under a wild swing thrown by Kinfron. “And, I am much, much smarter than you.” During the entire re-wiring of the mining ship, Vaughn pulled out and reconnected almost everything on the ship. Normally, the wires would be in the walls of the ship or tucked safely behind panels. Now, everything was open and accidents could so easily happen. Using his surroundings to his advantage, Vaughn kicked the foger one more time, sending him sprawling into the supercharged capacitors. He watched, gleefully as the massive current flowed through the foger, who convulsed as the electricity burned him from the inside. By the time the capacitors were discharged, Kinfron was a smoking heap of flesh, and the ship was dark, completely dead in the water.
Anti-gravity failed, causing Vaughn to float up off the deck. He used the wires and conduits to drag himself and the corpse of Kinfron across the ship, stuffed the body through the docking ring, and yanked the lever to uncouple the derelict ship, before sealing the airlock behind him.
Inside Kinfron’s ship, Vaughn dumped the body in a stasis pod, and then ransacked the ship.
Chapter 12 Escape from Savye
Date: 432nd Year of Emperor Valek Foger XXVI
“Holdan!” Vaughn shouted. “I won’t ask this again. The choice between you and my son is a no-brainer. If I have to skin you alive, I will.” He held the man in an arm bar, bending his hand backwards. Holdan’s face was pressed against the polished stone table top.
Fresia stepped towards Vaughn. “Vaughn, don’t do this. It’s Hold!”
“Twenty years of history. Twenty years of friendship. I dragged your sorry ass three hundred kilometers at the battle of Bruth, Holdan. And I only had one fucking leg!” Vaughn smashed Holdan’s face into the table as he spoke. “I saved your fucking miserable life. I gave you the seed to start this whole little empire you’ve built.” Vaughn leaned in close and whispered in Holdan’s ear. “What did they have on you? What was worth the life of my wife? What was worth it?”
“They have all my assets seized. Someone is out to get you, Vaughn. Someone big. I had no choice. They would kill me; this goes way up to the stratosphere, man.”
“Did you call Gentry when we got here, Hold?”
“That was my job. They said to call if you showed up here. If I did, I could have my life back. If I let you go, they would drop a sable on my compound from space.” Sable missiles were outlawed throughout the Fogerian Empire. The warhead released trillions of microscopic nanites that ate all organic matter. Within fifteen minutes, everything alive was gone. Bones, teeth, everything, not even a blood spot, leaving everything valuable behind. No damage was done to infrastructure or treasure.
“Vaughn, let’s go. Let him go. He’s going to have to live with what he did for the rest of his life,” Fresia said, tugging on his arm.
Vaughn reached up and snapped the communicator from Holdan’s wrist, threw it back by the door. He used his hold on the man to steer him towards the curtains, where he used the tie-back to bind his wrists behind his back. Vaughn threw the other end of the decorative cord over the curtain rod and heaved, pulling Holdan’s arms back and upward towards the curtain rod. When the man was standing on his tip-toes and Vaughn knew his shoulders were screaming in pain, he tied the cord off.
Vaughn grabbed Fresia and ran for the door, stopping to pick up Holdan’s communicator. On the way back to the dock, Vaughn said, “Halle, how far is Gentry?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“How many guns are on the dock?”
“There are no guns on the dock, Vaughn.”
Vaughn let out a string of expletives, and steered Fresia toward the lift. They’d go get them themselves. “Fre, ever run a loader?”
“Nope.”
“You’ll have about a minute to figure it out. Strap in, press start and grab a pallet. When the doors open, we’ll probably run into some guards. Any chance you have a backup IP Gun?”
Fresia held hers up. “Sorry, only one I’ve got. I don’t want to kill anyone, Vaughn.”
“Me either.” The lift dinged, and the door opened, rolling down. When the door was at head level, Vaughn saw two men, both facing the elevator. He vaulted off the door as it lowered and flew towards the first. He swung his legs out in the air and hit the two men sideways, bringing both men down. Vaughn rolled to his feet between the two men. Kicking backward, he struck the first guard and used that guard to spring forward, landing a huge flying right cross on the second.
The second guard’s nose erupted blood as the cartilage snapped. He went down in a heap. Fresia had stepped up behind the first guard and brought the handle of her plasma pistol down on the back of his neck. He joined his compatriot on the floor. Vaughn bent and drew each of their weapons, tucking them into the waistband of his pants.
“Well done. Grab a loader, we have to move fast. There should be a freight elevator that leads right to the dock.” Vaughn stepped up into the massive exoskeleton. He clipped his feet into the pedals and fastened the straps at his thighs, waist and chest before he slid his arms into the suit’s hand-grips. His own suit zinged to life, and seconds later, Fresia was in control of a second loader.
He lifted his foot, pulling on the foot clip. The loader followed his movements, and the two giant machines walked across the warehouse. “We’re looking for plasma cannons.”
The two machines, each ten meters tall, crossed the warehouse, taking one step for every ten a regular Human would have taken. “Vaughn! Over here!” Fresia called, pointing with the loader’s arm at the crates of plasma cannons. Vaughn remembered the first time he’d ever seen one fire. The cannon itself was relatively small, just a small cylinder about fifteen centimeters in length, and about four in diameter. Each cannon, provided they had enough power, could vaporize a Human-sized asteroid, and they were precise enough to hit space rocks one millimeter across.
Fresia bent, picked up a crate of one hundred, and Vaughn did the same, before the two of them headed for the elevator. At the top, the huge door split in half, opening from the center. Gentry was standing right outside.
As soon as the machines cleared the lift, Gentry called “Fire!”
“Halle!” Vaughn called. “Now!”
“Launching countermeasures, sir.” Tens of thousands of small, burning projectiles spewed out of the ship in every direction, searing holes in every man on the dock. A dozen burned their way through Gentry. One stray fragment burned its way through Vaughn’s loader and into his arm, burning a small hole through his forearm. He nearly dropped the crate of cannons as he stumbled forward in the loader.
“Fre! Get them in the ship! The defense ministry will have seen that. We have to move!”
Fresia pushed forward in her loader, sliding the crate up the ramp. The loader was too large to fit, so she stepped to the side. Incendiary countermeasures were burning through the concrete of the loading dock. The dock shifted and Gentry’s corpse slid down the slope and off the edge.
“Fire up the engines, Halle. We’re getting out of here right now,” Vaughn ordered. Fresia stepped out of her loader. Vaughn slid his crate in the cargo-bay beside the first, and stepped back.
Vaughn stepped out of his loader right as the dock gave way. The ground was pitched at a steep angle and Halle was the first thing to fall. Her engines roared in his ears as he watched his loader, then Fresia’s fall off the edge. Without another thought, Vaughn took two running steps and dove off the edge. He straightened out, diving straight for Fresia. She was flailing her arms and legs, which was not helping him. The ground was quickly rushing up, and Halle was half a mile off turning around.
“Fre! Spread your arms! Slow yourself!” She complied, and Vaughn started gaining. Halle’s thrusters roared as she put on speed to match theirs.
Vaughn collided with Fresia, grabbing her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Got ya,” he said, spreading his arms and legs to slow their fall.
Halle roared underneath them, rolling over. The two of them hit the loading dock platform and slid into the cargo hold. The door closed, and Halle pulled up, launching them skyward.
“Thank you, Halle,” said Fresia, once she’d caught her breath. Both Vaughn and Fresia were laying on their back in the cargo hold.
“You’re welcome, ma’am.”
Vaughn stared at her for a full ten seconds, before exclaiming, “But I caught you!”
“What good would that have done if Halle hadn’t saved both of us? You’re the one that launched incendiary countermeasures on a concrete platform three hundred meters in the air!”
The ship swerved, rolling Fresia over on top of Vaughn. He wrapped his arms around her to stop her from rolling in to the table. She looked down into his eyes and leaned in slightly, but Vaughn rolled to the side. “Fre. I…” he started.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s. Sarah… I can’t…”
“I know. Silly of me. It’s just… I always kind of thought…” she said.
“Me too,” he replied. “But not right now. I just have to get to Matty.”
Fresia stood, and straightened out her clothes. “Let’s get some plasma cannons installed.”
“Yes, Lets,” Vaughn replied. “Halle, take us to New Sharonton.”
“Yes, Sir. Brace for the fold.”
“So quickly?” asked Fresia. “How did you calculate it so fast?”
“There was a seventy-two percent chance Vaughn would want to return to New Sharonton to install the plasma cannons. I ran the calculations to the top three possible destinations, just in case.”
Fresia looked at Vaughn and mouthed the words “She’s amazing.”
Vaughn smiled, and mouthed back, “I know.”
Fresia grabbed the med-kit from the storage bin and treated Vaughn’s arm. “This is not designed for this kind of wound, you know. You really need to see a surgeon so they can remove the burned tissue.”
“It’ll have to get me through the next couple of days,” he said, gritting his teeth as she sprayed a pink foam into the hole in his arm. “Fuck me that shit hurts.”
“I know. Sorry. It’ll dull the pain in a minute, and disinfect the hole.”
When she was finished, Vaughn started pulling panels. He wanted to verify the gun turrets were functional again, having gone un-used since he first recovered the warship. He would have to access the outside of the ship to install the cannons, but he checked every relay. The captain was checking the control modules, reaching his hand armpit deep into the ship’s hull, when he happened to touch two electrical connections at once. Electricity sparked, burning his fingertips. “Ahh! Son of a bitch!” he yelled, shaking his hand.
Fresia was at his side in a second. His fingertips were red, but the injury wasn’t serious. She put her hand on his arm and said, “When was the last time you slept?”
“I dunno. I think I slept a little on the way to Foger.”
She pulled his arm away from the panel. “Come on, let’s get some sleep.”
Vaughn suddenly realized how tired he was. Tired enough that he didn’t complain when she climbed into his small berth with him and snuggled up in front of him. He was asleep in seconds, just before she pulled his arm over her.
Chapter 13 The Man Cave
Date: 432nd Year of Emperor Valek Foger XXVI
Vaughn rolled out of bed, leaving Fresia sleeping and walked up towards the cockpit. Once he was a few steps away, he said, “Take us out, Halle. I’ll be right up for manual re-entry.”
On his way, he grabbed a pair of tak bars and a bottle of water, and was reminded of that fateful morning before the battle of Bruth. Vaughn and Holdan were on the surface, scouting the defensive capabilities of the Bruthi E’Clei. Just before the twin suns rose, the pair stopped to rest in the last bit of darkness they’d see for the next eighty hours. Holdan pulled out a couple tak bars and tossed one to Vaughn.
“They taste like gnarg shit and shame, but it’s all I have,” he’d said, and the two of them laughed for ten minutes while they choked down their horrible tasting breakfast.
Vaughn had eaten hundreds of them after that, and every time thought about gnarg shit and shame. He choked down one more, sitting in the captain’s chair. He put the other one on the navigator’s seat for Fresia and landed the ship.
“Nice of you to join me this morning,” he said, when she stepped into the cockpit just as Halle touched down.
“You should have gotten me up. I would have helped,” she said, picking up the tak bar on her seat. “What was it Holdan used to say? Gnarg shit and shame?”
“Yeah, that’s the flavor,” Vaughn said, holding out his water bottle. “You’re going to need this. Pack it in; we’ve got a lot of work to do. When you’re finished, there’s a lift inside the bay, would you please start mounting the cannons?”
“Sure. What are you doing?”
“I have to get supplies. I won’t be too long.”
Vaughn bounded down the ramp into the thin atmosphere towards his house. For a moment, he thought about Sarah and starting this little home together. He shook his head, keeping the memory away. He didn’t have time right now – Matty was the only thing that mattered. He had to get his son back. In the dining room, he moved a picture on the wall to reveal a keypad, where he pressed a series of buttons.
With a loud woosh, a section of the floor slid back, revealing the stairway down to the first cavern Vaughn had cleared of Argimonium. Halfway down the stairs, lights came on in the massive underground space. The cave extended almost all the way to the launch pad, and twice as far on the other side of the house. One third of the space was taken up by stacks of Argimonium stasis cylinders in racks. As the rows of lights continued to come on, another third was revealed, just beside the launch pad. A huge, oddly shaped space-craft sat in one corner, suspended from a massive gantry. It wasn’t just any space-craft, however.
