‘Are we good to go?’ Pol asked.
She glanced questioningly across at Cleo sitting opposite her when she didn’t answer and found her with a haunted expression.
‘Cleo – what is it?’
‘Best I just show you,’ she said, dejectedly.
A Dasos news report flashed up on the holomap. It showed the bloodied bodies of Ed and a local lawyer in a cell on Vasi Stathmos station.
‘Ah – oh no no no,’ cried Pol, slumping back on the couch, her mouth hanging open as she watched the footage.
They sat in silence for a few moments as the video replayed several times.
‘We must – retrieve – the body,’ Pol said, between sobs. ‘So, he can be – reborn again – like before.’
‘The bodies have disappeared, Pol,’ said Cleo. ‘They’re saying they don’t know who the killers were and it was most likely in revenge for the 28. For some unknown reason they took the bodies with them.’
Pol sat staring at her hands, a tear ran down her cheek and she sniffed loudly.
‘You loved him, didn’t you?’ said Cleo, watching Pol closely.
She nodded and fiddled with her fingernails.
‘If I find out who did this, I’ll laser them into fucking dust,’ she mumbled.
Cleo winced and noticed a communication coming in.
‘We’ve got the station authority asking who we are and why the quarantined ship is being powered up.’
Pol looked up with tear-rimmed eyes.
‘Can you get us out of here?’ she asked.
‘We’d better be quick,’ said Cleo. ‘Station security are only three minutes away.’
She set about the control software for the airlock tube and the docking clamps, decoding them in less than twenty seconds. They both felt a slight lurch throughout the ship as the clamps released their grip and the tube retracted back into the station.
‘Buckle up,’ said Cleo. ‘This could be a bit hit or miss.’
Activating the cloak was both dangerous and illegal within the confines of the station, but Cleo had no choice. She immediately took the Gabriel straight up and over the top of the station, activating the shields and dodging the hundreds of assorted-sized vessels in the busiest section of space in the galaxy.
‘The station’s defence network has activated,’ said Pol, pointing at the laser canons installed all over the station suddenly swinging out from their default position. ‘They’re searching for us.’
Cleo winced as a small shuttle bounced off their shields near the stern. It hadn’t gone unnoticed as two cannons fired at the area of clear space. The Gabriel jerked sideways as the powerful bolts of energy were absorbed and distributed around the circumference of the ship by the shields.
‘Hurry up, Cleo,’ said Pol. ‘The planetary defence platforms are turning in our direction.’
‘Jumping,’ Cleo shouted suddenly, startling Pol, who nearly fell off her seat.
‘Where to?’
‘Here,’ said Cleo. ‘It wasn’t embedded so they’ll be on our tail. Recharging for an embedded jump.’
Pol gazed up at the holomap. Cleo had emergency-jumped them two light years away and had the ship travelling at point zero five light in a random direction, while the jump drive charged again.
A GDA destroyer winked into existence one thousand kilometres away and started firing randomly.
‘Pointless exercise, that is,’ said Cleo. ‘Chance of them hitting us is about a hundred million to one.’
‘Wankers,’ said Pol, watching as dozens of bolts of energy sailed off into deep space.
‘Have you been having elocution lessons from Andrew?’
A low ping caught their attention. The next jump was charged and embedded.
‘Where are we going this time?’ Pol asked, watching the holomap zip around as Cleo hit the jump icon.
‘It’s the location of the Krix’ir freighter’s first jump,’ she said.
‘How d’you know that if you were still cocooned on the Cartella?’
‘It was logged and unsurprisingly heading in the direction of Krix’ir.’
‘We’re not going to know where the second jump went though, are we?’
‘Well, perhaps,’ said Cleo. ‘I checked the jump authorisations for Krix’ir and no other ship has left Dasos for Krix’ir since that freighter.’
‘How does that help?’
‘Theo arrays can be honed to detect a specific jump signature a long time after the fact.’
‘What – like two days?’
‘Easily, so long as no other ship has trampled on the emissions.’
‘Wow, that’s—’
‘Oh – weird.’
‘What is?’
‘No ship has continued on to Krix’ir, but two ships arrived from Dasos. One was our freighter with another unauthorised vessel right behind it.’
‘Who was it?’
‘Unrecognised signature. Which isn’t surprising, as if the Gabriel hasn’t come across that ship before, then we won’t have its signature on file. But the interesting thing is they both went off in the same direction, freighter first and then four seconds later the mystery ship followed.’
Pol noticed a sly expression on Cleo’s face.
‘Does that tell us something?’ she asked.
‘It means the ship following was most probably cloaked and tailing the freighter, otherwise they would have synchronised their jumps for safety.’
‘Where did they go?’
‘Well, that’s the enigma,’ said Cleo, glancing across at Pol and raising her eyebrows. ‘Nowhere really. They both jumped off into free space on a course that isn’t on a recognised route to anywhere.’
‘Can we follow it?’
‘Uh, huh,’ grunted Cleo as she set the jump drive to follow the emission trail. ‘You go and get some rest, Pol. This could take a while and I’ll have some new clothes made for you when you wake.’
Pol made her way down to her cabin, undressed, inspected her new body in a mirror again and cried herself to sleep thinking about Ed’s bloodied body on a cell floor.