Читать книгу South of the Ecliptic - Donald Ph.D. Ladew - Страница 13

Sergeant, go to your station." As soon as Piehl reached the control deck he hit the departure signal and heard it ring throughout the ship. Shortly, the rest of the crew began to appear on the flight deck.

"Everybody strap in and seal up. Bring your systems on-line. Report when boards are green."

Piehl acknowledged each as they reported.

"Weapons, I want a full near-field and far-field scan. All tubes loaded for close action."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

"Whistler, set up to go out via LaGrange IV Terminus. As soon as Port Control gives you the last 'go', set ‘cloaking’, cut the ship's velocity to one third. Do one rotation on planetary orbit before going out to terminus."

"Tricky, Captain, very tricky," Flex grinned.

"The King may be able to squash this Royal Navy crap, I don't know, but I'm not going to give anything away."

"IMP, get Port Control and begin clearing us out." Piehl could hear the two computers talking in the background. The huge docking bay doors began to open outward on the night sky of Regent's Planet.

He felt the ship spring free of restraints and slowly begin to move forward out of the hanger. It was the best feeling in the world, everything bright and a sharp tang of excitement filled the flight deck.

"Ease us out, Flex."

With the feathery control of first class gravitics they slid into the dark night sky.

"Up ahead slow, Flex. IMP? What have you got?"

"We're going to have company, Captain. I've got two fast cruisers at LaGrange III. That's not their usual station. These guys are running hot engines and I have pre-jump energy readings from their mains."

"All right, follow the plan, Flex."

"One minute to cloaking, Captain."

"Ship's dark, sir. On new course west-north-west, orbital escape. Lagrange IV in 2.55 minutes."

"Comm, sir. LaGrange IV will relay our Mass Event even if they can't see us," Lady Lociranou said.

Piehl chuckled grimly. "No problem, by then it will be too late. Flex, we'll jump within their safety envelope."

"They'll be screaming rape and destruction, sir!" Flex said cheerfully.

"Screw'em, our bills are paid. It'll give that shiftless bunch of electro-tech fairies something to do re-calibrating all their instruments. I'll enter the jump coordinates from here, Flex."

Flex just raised his eyebrows. "Aye, aye. Passing LaGrange IV, sir."

"Someone's got a probability lock on long range, sir," IMP cut in.

"Ignore it."

"Jump in twenty seconds, Captain. I show coordinates locked on the board." Flex said.

"Play the music, Flex."

All through the ship the thunder of 'Outward Bound', a Legion song rang out. Piehl felt the familiar lurch and twist in his gut, then the curious blankness of thought that signals a strong gravitic event. Slowly the music faded. They were in null-space, underway.

"IMP, were either of those two building for a jump?"

"No, Captain; my estimate is 98.61% we jumped alone. However, they should have been able to determine our destination coordinates."

"Understood. Everyone set systems for normal space keeping." Piehl looked around the flight deck and watched the individual protect shields rolling back from their safety positions. The Whistler spoke first.

"Captain, I deduce from computational data that we are on a long jump toward the galactic core."

"That's correct. I'm sorry I haven't let you know my intentions. We're going to take a roundabout route to the Rim."

"Sir, I have computed the time of jump; six days, sixteen hours plus; with our current relative heading vector, unless my midbrain is scrambled, I'd say we were headed for the Junkyard and Glass-Eyes Paradise."

"Nothing wrong with your computational skills, Mister Ing; as a matter of fact they are excellent."

Strange ripples moved across his body but no sound came forth.

"Do I detect distress, Mr. Ing?"

"Well...er..Captain, are you aware Glass-Eyes himself has a standing bounty of ten thousand gold solars for a Whistler carcass...alive or dead?"

"Ten thousand solars? IMP, what is the condition of the exchequer? What do you think, men, ten thousand solars would throw one hell of a party on Joy. Begging your pardon, ladies."

There was a lot of cheering and comments flying around. Even the IMP joined in, although Piehl couldn't imagine what the IMP would do on Joy.

"I think for the good of the ship, a crew member should be willing to make a few sacrifices. What about it, Mr. Ing?" Piehl said with a straight face.

"Hah, hah, hah. A good one, sir, yes indeed. We Whistlers are known for our fine sense of humor." His voice died away.

"Not to worry, Mr. Astrogator, we do need a first class man for the jumps, and I don't know where we would find someone with as good a singing voice. We'll just have to see that no one collects that bounty. What does Glass-Eyes want with one of you fellow's hides?"

"As I understand it, sir, he wants to use the individual resonators for some bizarre musical instrument." The outrage poured off his body.

Flex spoke up. "Now that's a great idea. Look, Mr. Ing, let's you and I get together and talk about this. I've got some great ideas how you and I might turn a credit or two." The two of them left the flight deck amid the others' laughter.

"Major Tenn'ek, you and the sergeant have the watch. The IMP will monitor all systems and keep security," said Piehl.

Things settled down to normal routine for jump-time. One got to hear everyone's stories three or four times, sleep as much as they could and work at keeping the ship in good running order, although there was little of that with the Wellspring.

It appeared that they had gotten away clean, so Piehl wondered why he felt jumpy. It was too easy. He found it hard to believe that if Trone wanted to make trouble, he wouldn't have the resources to destroy them and get away with it.