Doomed Cargo by Ian Cannon

Author:Ian Cannon [Cannon, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Ben switched over, snapped away from their conversation about demons and prophecy. He said, “What is it?”

“A long range proximity scan. It’s scouring local space. Someone’s looking for somebody. I’m afraid it might be us.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Uh, nothing. I’m just afraid it might be us.”

Ben leapt into his pilot’s seat flipping switches, bringing up drive systems. “Well, it’s probably us then.” He fired up the small control boosters and began pulling away. The endless strata of the Zii Band speckled the distance, a sea of tumbling rock. There was no end to it, no beginning, just a river of ore winding through space. They could be there within minutes. “Who is it?”

“Hard to say at this distance. Multiple marks, though.”

“Is it these Obsalom people?” Tawny said.

“No, this is a military column,” REX said. “It looks like a battle group. They’re moving into the edge of local space.”

“Military?” Tawny said, shocked. “Which side?”

“Hard to say yet,” REX answered.

Ben swung REX around and headed for the asteroid field saying, “Bring them up.” The space view swirled one-eighty.

The map zipped into view in front of Tawny. She saw them immediately—a series of encroaching indicators moving in from open space.

“Who are they?” Ben asked jetting the ship closer to the asteroid field.

Tawny clicked her tongue, thinking. “If I had to guess by the formation, I’d say they’re Cabal. But what’re they doing way out here?”

Ben pursed his lips. “What do you think?”

She gave him a cross look and murmured, “Looking for us.”

He nodded. “After Menuit-B, we should have expected this.”

“Well, now we know.”

“Mm-hmm,” he said. The asteroid band was upon them breaking the vista of space up into an endless horizon of hard, gray rock.

Tawny studied the proximity map. A tiny point of light appeared with circular ovoids emanating from it like ripples in a pond. Energy sonar. “Another scan,” she said.

“We’ll lose them,” Ben said sinking the ship into the band of cosmic debris. Within moments they were surrounded by slowly spinning asteroids. Some were majestic and huge, dwarfing their vessel in shifting shadows, others smaller and more fragmented. The rock scooted across their viewport like objects caught inside a current. The chitter chatter of pebbles dancing against their hull sounded off like rain as they lowered into the scatterings.

Ben locked the ship into geosynchronous motion with one of the bigger ones, coming about. The asteroid loomed across half the sky. The holomap shuddered, blinking in and out of registry.

“We’re losing our proximity reading,” Tawny said.

“I know,” Ben replied. “Gravimetric shifting will play havoc with our sensors.” He smiled at her, “But it’ll do the same to theirs. As long as we keep them in our six, we’ll know where they’re at. Now, we just drift away. They’ll never see us.” He made one final boost with the starboard jets to give the ship a lazy spin and brought the thrusters all the way down. The more they drifted like a stone, the more they pirouetted like one, the more they’d look like one.

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