Hand of Fate (Backyard Starship Book 21) by J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert

Author:J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2024-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

We twisted to an unoccupied red dwarf system to meet with the Prowler and gas her up, and also to undertake some minor repairs to the Fafnir. The Willing and Able had landed a few laser hits and done a bit of damage—nothing critical, certainly, but it was best to repair things right away rather than letting them sit. Minor damage could quickly become major damage in space, and we were counting heavily on the Fafnir performing to spec when we needed it.

It was during those repairs that we almost lost Rab.

He and Icky had gone outside to work with EVAN on repairs to the mount for one of the mass-driver batteries. He was using a plasma cutter, but in welding mode, to reinforce the base of the mount when the cutter apparently malfunctioned and loosed a flare of superheated plasma back at him. It was only through dumb luck that the flare missed him—he’d contorted himself to start work on a new section of the mount, twisting his head and shoulder out of the flare’s path barely a second before it discharged. He reflexively pushed the cutter away, sending it sailing out to the length of its tether. It rebounded and came right back at him, but Icky deftly caught it and hit the emergency shutoff, ending its incandescent menace.

We inside the Fafnir weren’t even aware of the drama until Icky called out, “Rab, are you alright?” over the comm. We all immediately perked up but stayed quiet—if something was going wrong, the last we needed were a bunch of questions clogging up the channel.

“Yeah, I’m fine. A little singed, I think, that’s it.”

“Rab, Icky, what’s going on out there?” I asked.

“We had a mishap with the plasma torch,” Rab replied. “No damage done, but we’re coming inside.”

They returned through the airlock but left the cutter outside with EVAN. Netty had him do a thorough inspection of it and found not that it was faulty—but that it had been sabotaged.

“Someone fiddled with the plasma-stream guide,” Netty reported. “It was rigged to reverse the safety field and redirect plasma back at the operator.”

“That couldn’t have happened by accident?” I asked her.

“It is profoundly unlikely. The safety field is meant to keep the plasma jet away from the operator. It would have to be deliberately reversed, which could only be done by reconfiguring the hardware. And that entails some very specific changes to the components involved.”

I cursed. “Okay, we need to figure out how this happened. Who the hell could possibly have had access to the Fafnir’s gear.”

Icky spoke up. “Actually, Van, that cutter/welder rig is new, or new-ish. We requisitioned it right before all this crap with Yotov and her scummy friends went down.”

“Requisitioned it? From Anvil Dark?”

“Yeah. But it was new, still in its original packaging. I don’t like using refurbished stuff.”

I planted my hands on my hips. “Okay. I want to trace this back and figure out how the bad guys managed to get that thing onto my ship.

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