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Authors: Anthony Hartig
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the pipe and try to knock a few more hours off our flight time.”
“How fast can your ship go?”
“I can get 4.5 HsD, but the Zephyr can’t maintain that speed for too long or the cryogen squelch piping will rupture and we’ll burn-out the inter-coolers.”
“Then what happens?”
“Then we’re a dead stick. We may as well initiate the self-destruct sequence and vaporize ourselves before Seinz gets to us.”
“I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice, Nikki. You’re going to have to push the Zephyr.”
“He’s pissed.” I snickered softly as I bit my lower lip and gave Scotty an embarrassed look.
“You think? You told him to pack his ass.” Scotty smiled.
“He fired on us then threatened to skin me alive! Not exactly the kind of thing a girl likes to hear during the holidays.”
“Do you always get in this much trouble, Nikki?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“ I mean first it was that guy at Kurlie’s bar, now you’ve got this Seinz in love with you…”
“ Okay, so I’m having a bad week,” I feigned angrily as I tried to keep a straight face, “you may want to tread lightly, Scotty, I’m not above lobbing an insult your direction to keep you in your place.”
“You’re all heart .” Scotty smiled widely as he turned his attention back to the view outside the canopy.
“We’ re at 3.2 now. I’m hoping Seinz isn’t going to be able to keep up with us .”
“What if he can? ”
“He needs to be able to see us first. Any vector scan or IMF probe he does will be a waste of time, we’re shielded electronically. If he tries to get a thermal image on our heat signature he’ll be out of luck. We’re purely hypersonic--have been since I shut down the thrusters when we cleared Earth’s gravitational pull, so he can’t track us by infra-red. We also don’t leave any ion or radiation trails because the Zephyr has magnetic drives. The only two ways Seinz could track us is if the Moria can zero-in on our drive’s magnetic emissions or he actually gets a visual on us.”
“How visible is our magnetic trail?”
“There are a lot of things floating around out there that have magnetic fields--meteorites, asteroids, charged particles in the solar winds, not to mention plasma streams and transient energies. Seinz would have to ferret the Zephyr’s profile out of that fodder and get within a hundred mile radius to get an accurate reading on our course, but then again…”
“But then again—what?”
I sighed. “I’ve seen a lot of things since I’ve been in the business. Black market techies are willing to make just about anything if you’ve got the cash or credit to pay them off…no questions asked propositions. God only knows what kind of systems the Moria has onboard and where he got them.” I shook my head with disdain and exhaled. “I farking hate pirates.”
“Is there a difference between bandits and pirates?”
“Bandits steal. Pirates kill.”
I held our trajectory steady and kept an eye on the scanner for the Moria Balá as we pushed into the infinite sub-zero blackness toward the Pipe. Thousands of light years ahead, the vast blue and orange beauty of the Lucky CN 1051 Nebula filled the cockpit canopy. The central star pulsed with a rhythm as if the birth of another solar system was being announced to the rest of the universe.
“Tell me about Nexus. Kurlie said you knew the planet like the back of your hand.”
“What do you want to know? Demographics?”
“I was thinking along the lines of night life. You know, dance clubs, parties, shows…”
“Nikki, do I look like the type of guy that goes to dance clubs?”
“You never know about a person, you don’t exactly fit the profile of anyone that would do business with Kurlie, either.”
“I think you’ll love it there. The days are thirty-six hours long, so you’ll have plenty of time to recover from any of the festivities you plan to attend.”
“Once this drop is made, I’ll refuel and
“How fast can your ship go?”
“I can get 4.5 HsD, but the Zephyr can’t maintain that speed for too long or the cryogen squelch piping will rupture and we’ll burn-out the inter-coolers.”
“Then what happens?”
“Then we’re a dead stick. We may as well initiate the self-destruct sequence and vaporize ourselves before Seinz gets to us.”
“I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice, Nikki. You’re going to have to push the Zephyr.”
“He’s pissed.” I snickered softly as I bit my lower lip and gave Scotty an embarrassed look.
“You think? You told him to pack his ass.” Scotty smiled.
“He fired on us then threatened to skin me alive! Not exactly the kind of thing a girl likes to hear during the holidays.”
“Do you always get in this much trouble, Nikki?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“ I mean first it was that guy at Kurlie’s bar, now you’ve got this Seinz in love with you…”
“ Okay, so I’m having a bad week,” I feigned angrily as I tried to keep a straight face, “you may want to tread lightly, Scotty, I’m not above lobbing an insult your direction to keep you in your place.”
“You’re all heart .” Scotty smiled widely as he turned his attention back to the view outside the canopy.
“We’ re at 3.2 now. I’m hoping Seinz isn’t going to be able to keep up with us .”
“What if he can? ”
“He needs to be able to see us first. Any vector scan or IMF probe he does will be a waste of time, we’re shielded electronically. If he tries to get a thermal image on our heat signature he’ll be out of luck. We’re purely hypersonic--have been since I shut down the thrusters when we cleared Earth’s gravitational pull, so he can’t track us by infra-red. We also don’t leave any ion or radiation trails because the Zephyr has magnetic drives. The only two ways Seinz could track us is if the Moria can zero-in on our drive’s magnetic emissions or he actually gets a visual on us.”
“How visible is our magnetic trail?”
“There are a lot of things floating around out there that have magnetic fields--meteorites, asteroids, charged particles in the solar winds, not to mention plasma streams and transient energies. Seinz would have to ferret the Zephyr’s profile out of that fodder and get within a hundred mile radius to get an accurate reading on our course, but then again…”
“But then again—what?”
I sighed. “I’ve seen a lot of things since I’ve been in the business. Black market techies are willing to make just about anything if you’ve got the cash or credit to pay them off…no questions asked propositions. God only knows what kind of systems the Moria has onboard and where he got them.” I shook my head with disdain and exhaled. “I farking hate pirates.”
“Is there a difference between bandits and pirates?”
“Bandits steal. Pirates kill.”
I held our trajectory steady and kept an eye on the scanner for the Moria Balá as we pushed into the infinite sub-zero blackness toward the Pipe. Thousands of light years ahead, the vast blue and orange beauty of the Lucky CN 1051 Nebula filled the cockpit canopy. The central star pulsed with a rhythm as if the birth of another solar system was being announced to the rest of the universe.
“Tell me about Nexus. Kurlie said you knew the planet like the back of your hand.”
“What do you want to know? Demographics?”
“I was thinking along the lines of night life. You know, dance clubs, parties, shows…”
“Nikki, do I look like the type of guy that goes to dance clubs?”
“You never know about a person, you don’t exactly fit the profile of anyone that would do business with Kurlie, either.”
“I think you’ll love it there. The days are thirty-six hours long, so you’ll have plenty of time to recover from any of the festivities you plan to attend.”
“Once this drop is made, I’ll refuel and
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