Ed looked up from his mug of coffee as Bache joined him in the blister lounge at the top of the ship.
‘Message sent?’ Ed asked, as Bache flopped onto the sofa opposite.
‘Sent,’ said Bache, not sounding overly confident. ‘Whether it gets to him or not is out of our hands. We have no idea how deep this goes.’
‘D’you think he could be involved?’
‘Highly unlikely knowing the man, but somewhere along the line there’s a lot of money involved and if the sums are big enough, it can corrupt anyone.’
Ed nodded and stared back into his drink.
‘I’ve sent a drone back to Earth to warn them,’ he said. ‘Not that there’s a lot they can do to prepare, even if it isn’t intercepted by—’
Ed stopped abruptly and looked up as the lighting in the room suddenly changed to red.
‘You’d better get to the bridge,’ called Cleo, her voice echoing around the empty room.
‘On our way,’ said Ed, abandoning his coffee and running for the tube lift with Bache hot on his tail.
‘There’s another ship,’ said Rayl, pointing at the holomap as they popped up into the bridge. ‘It was waiting hidden in the Jacab’Na system and headed straight for Dewey’s ship as soon as he jumped in.’
‘What is it?’ Ed asked.
‘Klatt design corvette,’ said Cleo.
‘Shit – how long till we’re there?’
‘Three minutes,’ said Phil.
‘How close are they to Dewey?’
‘Two minutes,’ said Andy, the worry evident in his voice.
‘How long will his shields hold out?’
‘Not long against a warship.’
‘Jumping in three, two, one, now,’ said Phil.
The holomap changed abruptly and reset with three flashing icons closing on each other.
‘We’re at point nine three light,’ said Phil. ‘That’s everything.’
Ed could see the corvette was obviously going to get there before them.
‘Uncloak the ship,’ he said.
‘But our secrecy will be blown,’ said Andy.
‘I’m not planning on letting that corvette leave,’ said Ed. ‘They want a war, let’s start giving them one.’
‘I’m taking out one of the mini-mes,’ said Andy, leaping up, and in four seconds he’d disappeared below on the tube lift.
Phil uncloaked the Gabriel. The response was immediate and brutal.
‘They’ve fired,’ said Rayl. ‘Two missiles launched.’
‘Can we take them out?’ said Ed. ‘With the rail gun maybe?’
His answer came with a judder and the brittle snap snap of the rail gun unleashing two titanium rods at the speed of light.
In the meantime, Dewey’s yacht had taken evasive action and turned towards the Gabriel. A sudden glint of light from the side of the yacht caught Ed’s attention.
‘What was that?’ he said, pointing as another icon tracked away from Dewey’s ship.
‘Lifeboat,’ said Rayl, looking up with alarm.
‘The missiles have altered trajectory with the ship, the rail gun rounds will miss,’ said Bache.
‘Are we in range for the lasers yet?’ Ed asked.
‘No,’ Rayl snapped back.
‘Give them a few missiles to worry about,’ he said. ‘They might take their eye off the ball for a minute.’
Three kataligo missiles tracked away from the Gabriel, homing in towards the corvette. It did indeed quickly alter course, unfortunately towards the lifeboat. It unleashed two more missiles at that before turning away.
The rail gun fired twice more, but everyone could see it was too late. The missiles would reach the lifeboat before the rounds would take them out.
Then several things happened in quick succession: one of the missiles heading for the lifeboat suddenly exploded harmlessly, and the yacht turned abruptly just as the missiles targeting it closed in. One missed and began tracking around to reacquire its target and the other hit the ship’s shields at an acute angle and detonated, damaging the yacht. The second missile targeting the lifeboat found its mark and the tiny craft disappeared in a cloud of vapour.
‘Oh shit,’ cried Rayl.
The remaining missile reacquired the yacht but exploded way short of its target and moments later the corvette bloomed outwards from the bow and exploded in spectacular fashion. The Gabriel’s three missiles then came in from behind and added to the maelstrom, leaving nothing resembling a ship at all.
‘Is that everything?’ called Andy, as he uncloaked the tiny GDA fighter.
‘We believe so,’ replied a dejected Rayl.
‘Another few seconds and we would’ve been in time,’ said Ed, as Phil brought the Gabriel close to the damaged yacht. It was in a slow tumble, its shields down and communications array badly mangled, but just as Rayl was about to utilise the tractor beam to catch the yacht and arrest its tumble, the second lifeboat ejected. Phil quickly brought the Gabriel about and caught up with the tiny vessel, as Rayl gently eased it into the port hangar. Andy followed it in and parked next to the other fighter in the corner.
Ed and Bache sprinted into the hangar and joined Andy as they approached the scarred and slightly singed lifeboat. The hatch motor whined and the circular airlock door dropped open, the three of them all leaning underneath the craft to peer up inside. Three frightened faces of the yacht crew stared back and just as Ed was about to ask about the ambassador, a rather harried recognisable fourth face appeared and spoke quietly.
‘I hope the bar’s open; I need a fucking drink – fucking drink indeed.’
Dewey was on his fourth cognac before his hands stopped shaking.
‘Have the Klatt lost their fucking minds?’ he said, after Ed and Bache filled him in on whose ship it was that had attacked him. ‘I was only speaking to their High Secretary Zikk’La a few days ago too.’
‘It’s not the ruling Grondalle clan that’s doing this,’ said Bache. ‘It’s a group of their Spleeta clan looking to gain control, supported by some as yet unidentified senior GDA personnel.’
You could hear Dewey’s swearing halfway around the ship, especially when he learnt of the upcoming Earth invasion, and Bache managed to get his brandy glass out of his hand before it hit a wall.
‘We need to get back there and defend the planet,’ he raged. ‘This ship has a formidable arsenal doesn’t it, surely it’ll be enough—’
Ed raised his hand palm out to stop Dewey.
‘James, the invasion fleet is around four thousand ships strong,’ he said. ‘Even if it was four hundred we’d still be overwhelmed in the end. The only way to defeat this is with a fleet and they’re all being sent in the wrong direction. We need you in the council chambers on Dasos, persuading them to divert part of the fleet to Earth.’
Dewey paced back and forth across the bridge, his hands behind his back and staring at the floor.
‘I thought you said this ship has been designated renegade,’ he growled. ‘It’ll be targeted as soon as we arrive.’
‘It has and it would,’ said Ed. ‘But the Cartella hasn’t.’
Dewey looked up. His face of worry had been replaced by one of determination.
‘Better step on the gas then,’ he said.