Jax lingered on the ReliefCorp station for a few hours while Rudy oversaw a crew of cleaning droids. Some of the aid camp workers treated him to a round of drinks in thanks for rescuing them. When he staggered back to the Osprey, he had Skip take care of departure while he crawled into bed.
“Jax, wake up,” Skip said loud enough to wake his boss but not scare the life out of him.
“What’s wrong?” Jax sat straight up. He immediately reached for his trousers, lying at the end of the bed.
“I dropped us into local space to adjust course and apparently came within range of an Imperial patrol. They’ve set an intercept course, twenty minutes out. They’re hailing us,” Skip replied, his voice moving from speaker to speaker as Jax moved down the corridor past the other two crew berths, into the lounge, and up the stairs to the flight deck.
Jax finished putting on his shirt, an old Space Rogues shirt he picked up in a market on Eridani. He wasn’t a fan of the movies, but he enjoyed the books his mom had given him on an old reader device. “Let’s see ‘em,” he said, disengaging the auto-flight systems and powering up the displays set into his console. The screen blinked to life, showing an Imperial capital ship. “Great,” Jax mumbled. “One of the big ones.” On the screen was the wide mushroom cap forward section of an Imperial Adjudicator class cruiser. The wide forward section was almost as wide as the entire ship was long, just over a kilometer of Imperial muscle. Even at the relative distance still separating the two ships, Jax could see the heavy weapons lining the forward section. He tapped the blinking indicator that showed the holding call. “Hi, sorry for the wait. I was asleep. This is Captain John Smith of the Rambler. How can I be of service?”
From the speakers a gruff voice replied, “Independent vessel Rambler , this is the INV-1215 Justicar . Prepare to come aboard for an inspection.” The line didn’t immediately close. Then the voice came back. “As your vessel is armed, we’ll require a tactical lockdown beginning now until you depart.”
Jax tapped the button to mute the comms. “Fucking assholes.” He turned to look over his shoulder at Rudy. “Ready?”
Lacking a neck that allowed for nodding, Rudy did what rock hoppers had been doing for centuries when mining asteroids in thick suits. He raised his hand and bobbed his fist up and down.
“Yes, would have worked,” Jax said, smiling. He lifted his finger. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass.”
“We will shoot you down. Prepare to come aboard—” The channel closed.
“Oops, must have gotten disconnected,” Jax said as the massive warship slid out of view through the transparent titanium windows wrapping the front of the flight deck.
“They’re charging weapons,” Skip reported, then added, “Shields up, weapons hot.”
Jax brought the Osprey around in a tight corkscrew as charged plasma began streaking past the ship. Several bolts of energy struck the shields, causing warning icons to light up on most of the consoles as the ship shook.
“We won’t last long taking direct hits, you know,” Rudy quipped.
“I’m built for speed, not head-to-head combat,” Skip added.
“Shut up. Both of you,” Jax said as he brought the Osprey back on an intercept course with the much larger warship. Charged plasma dashed against the shields, causing them to flare. Jax pushed the throttle all the way forward. The Imperial ship grew quickly, its weapons batteries becoming visible. “Hold on!”
“I’m magnetically attached to the floor!” Rudy said over the roar of the engines as the Osprey screamed over the hull of the Imperial ship, the two vessels’ shields sparking as they interacted.
The Osprey skimmed the much larger vessel’s bow faster and closer than its guns could track, then shot over the lip of the flared forward section. Like all Adjudicator class ships, the bulk of the Justicar’s weapons were on the wide mushroom top forward section. That had far more armor since the ship was designed to rush head on into battle, providing cover for small frigates and corvettes. The lateral gun batteries opened up, a few striking the Osprey’s weakened shields. In seconds, the small, far more nimble ship was past the massive cruiser. They passed the powerful engines and angled to move into the ion wash, hiding them from the bigger ship’s sensors.
Jax looked over his shoulder. Rudy was using a small fire extinguisher to put out a small flame under the usually unused third console on the small flight deck. “Easy,” he said, turning around and making a few course adjustments before pushing the wormhole generator control lever forward, causing the Osprey to leap into the swirling vortex of spacetime, leaving the Imperials light years behind them in minutes.