BEYOND THE EDGE: A Science Fiction Novel by lee eckhardt

Author:lee eckhardt [eckhardt, lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-07-29T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

“How close?” Dihwa asked quickly. “How close?”

“About 800,000 klicks and decelerating - ”

She tossed him the goggles. “Stay here and keep an eye out.” She disappeared into the tunnel, reappearing a minute later with Alvah and Nefer-Nefer in tow.

Alvah crouched next to Dernal. “What’s this about another ship?”

“It’s in this system and headed for us.”

Alvah glanced up into the sky, then dropped his eyes to Dernal’s. “How did they get so close without you knowing about it?”

“They must have come out of Transit while they were on the other side of the planet. They’ve been closing all this time.”

“Who are they? Vanguard?”

“I don’t know. At this range I can’t - ”

“Let’s get back to the ship! Now!”

“I think we’d better find out who they are first,” Dihwa said quickly.

“And I think we should get up there now and get away while we’ve got the chance!”

“It’s too late for that,” Dernal said. “They’ll be in orbit before we can reach the ship. I’ve already shut down the ship’s power - ”

“You what?” Alvah roared. “You mean you’ve stranded us here?”

“Take a stress pill!” Dihwa snapped. “Dernal’s right – there’s so much garbage up there they might not notice the ship while it’s powered down. It’ll be just another piece of debris to them, so delete it!”

“We’ll be trapped here!”

“We’ll be trapped up there. Listen to Dernal!”

They all turned to face him. For a moment Dernal looked anxiously at Dihwa, hoping, somehow, that she would take command – the only time he had ever faced a situation like this one he had failed. He admitted it now – he had failed, and he had lost a ship because of it.

No. No, he told himself, he wouldn’t let her do it. He wanted to be an Astrogator – it was time he started acting like one.

“I presume,” Alvah said, “you have some idea of what to do? Something that won’t get us caught or killed?”

Dernal took a quavering breath. “First of all, we stay here.”

“Then what?”

“We find out just who they are and what we’re up against.”

“They’ll scan the planet’s surface before they make a landing, correct?”

“It’s standard procedure - ”

“Then they’ll spot the boat!”

“It’s a stealthboat, remember?” Dihwa said.

Alvah stopped, looked thoughtful, then nodded. “All right, so they don’t spot us. But what else, Dernal? Do we stay here for the rest of our lives?”

“We can hunker down until they leave - ”

“If it’s a Vanguard expedition they could be here for months! Years!”

“ - or we can sneak up to the ship while they’re planetside.”

“And if what you have just said is true, they will spot us the moment you light off the nerva drive!”

Even Dihwa looked worried at this, but Dernal had an answer. “We’ll board and then wait until the other ship is on the other side of the planet. Then we slip out of orbit and head home.”

“As soon as they round the planet they’ll spot us,” Alvah said. “They’ll follow us!”

“We’ll be in a position to open a Transit window long before they can catch up to us,” Dernal said.

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