‘So what now?’ Kris demanded, as Idris squeezed past Trine’s metal body to get to his seat.
‘So I’m decoupling you. I want you to fall into unspace as quickly as you can, just jump right out and we’ll do the same. Telemmier, I’ll link you to my navigator. Make sure we don’t end up clashing.’
‘So we stutter-jump together, in-system?’ Idris asked politely. He was already calculating a course to the deep void, but felt the illusion of cooperation was worth maintaining.
‘We both know you’ll go on the lam straight off.’ The knowing edge in Havaer’s voice cut deep. ‘Maybe that’s best for now. And once you’re clear of us, I know full well that I’ve got no hold on you. I’m Hugh, and you spacers will take every chance to buck authority.’
‘Not entirely fair,’ Kris protested, although Olli shouting, ‘Damn right!’ over her probably didn’t help.
‘It’s like this,’ Havaer’s voice went on. They could hear the faint babble of his crew behind him, as they readied ship systems to face the Broken Harvest. ‘Mordant House is only interested in the Architects – this isn’t about you. And I know you all have very different loyalties, but this is way bigger than any one government. If the Architects are back, everyone needs to know. I am therefore pleading with you to get your ship to Berlenhof – with or without the Oumaru. Berlenhof has embassies for every major galactic power. And specifically for Executor Solace, you should know that the Heaven’s Sword – your own damn sorority ship – is there right now along with the Thunderchild, in the most overt display of gunboat diplomacy I ever saw. All because of even the first sniff of Architect involvement. If you value anything beyond your own skins and profits, come testify there. You’ll be heroes. And once this is all out and public, you’ll be safe.’
Idris wondered how much of that the man believed.
‘We need to discuss it,’ Idris told Havaer over the comms.
‘Just think about it,’ came the reply, and then, ‘Right, they’re on us. Decoupling you.’ The umbilical had already withdrawn and Idris’s board showed him a warning that the Hammer’s clamps were retracting.
‘Ready,’ Idris replied. He coaxed a drachm of force from the Vulture’s reaction drives, to push them away from the Hammer the moment they were free.
Perhaps the Broken Harvest assumed they were fulfilling its demands, as it changed course to intercept the smaller vessel while keeping its weapons targeted on Havaer’s ship. Idris let the Vulture tumble as though drifting away from the Hammer, while calculating the space between the vessels. Mass screwed with gravity, so a complex gravitic operation like entering unspace wasn’t wise when in another ship’s shadow. Especially if that ship was already plotting its own jump.
He had a weird sense, then, as if the universe really was a sheet and three fingers were pressing dimples into it. Here he was, here was the Hammer’s leash-contracted navigator, and there was the alien mind that guided the Broken Harvest. Ogdru, the species was called. He pictured it like a predatory whale, vast bulk, long jaws.
The others weren’t all in suspension pods yet, but they’d just have to go through the final motions on the other side. Even as the Harvest swooped in, he activated the Vulture’s gravitic drive and yanked them into unspace. And they fell away from the Jericho system into the deep abyss.
21.
Idris
Or that was the plan.
Something seared like a knife into Idris’s skull. Space around the Vulture God abruptly contained vast volumes more than it should, every axis of distance receding away from them. Including that vital step from here to there that would remove the ship from the real and place it within unspace. The salvage ship’s gravitic drives were clawing at the substance of the universe, running at full power as they went absolutely nowhere.
An angry rainbow of warning lights spread across his board and all that power had to go somewhere: use it, lose it or it would tear the ship in two. He remembered how the Broken Harvest’s interceptor had been so careful not to shoot at the Oumaru. Possibly the hoods thought the relics were still hidden aboard that wreck, because apparently the Vulture God didn’t warrant the same kind of deference. Or maybe they had given the relics up for lost and were avenging the utmost heresy.
Gravitic interdiction was theoretical tech. He knew Colonial scientists had a model around the end of the war but had got nowhere with it. He didn’t think the Parthenon had it either. Apparently the Hegemony did, though. Apparently even rogue Hegemony gangsters had it. War with the Hegemony had always been a possibility should the Colonies decide not to allow one of their worlds to secede to the alien empire. Fighting the force of the Hegemony gravity net, Idris had a really bad feeling about how that fight might go, because just maybe the Essiel’s non-confrontational manner didn’t stem from their not being able to put the boot in when they needed to. Havaer Mundy would doubtless have some interesting reports to file – if he escaped this mess.