STOWAWAY TO THE STARS

When Larry said he didn’t have an escape plan, Karen’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Please don’t say things like that, just when I thought you had everything under control. Can’t we get out the same way we got in?”

He shook his head slowly. “They would never fall for that trick twice. In any case, it only worked the first time because, out in deep space, we could pretend to be a ship in distress that had just come through the boundary.”

He pulled at his ear in thought, and said, “On second thoughts, I think we have a chance. What I’ll do is wait for a foreign ship and tail it really closely. Hopefully they won’t risk firing on us for fear of hitting the other ship and sparking an interstellar incident.”

“How will you manage that? I don’t know if you have noticed, but there are not too many spaceliners underwater.” She waved her arm at the canopy and the green water outside.

Larry smiled to himself. She’d already recovered from the day’s trauma – enough to be sassy with him, in that cute, precise accent she had.

“The main interstellar spaceport is Zirtar, which is on this continent, further south. We’ll wait for a ship taking off that we can tail. At least this time we won’t have to cross the ocean. We’ll head south, and when we’re about as close as we can get, we’ll find somewhere secluded to surface where we won’t be seen.”

****

Three hours of underwater travel brought them to another quiet inlet. They should be safe here from everything but direct overhead detection. Larry cautiously surfaced, and rotated the ship all the way round as before to check for activity. It looked quite deserted, so he beached the ship in the shallows and powered the gravity motors down to standby.

Larry turned to Karen. “We should be safe with the motors off. The normal detection systems pick up a trace from the gravity-wave motors. The only risk is that someone might come by, so can you keep a good lookout outside for me? I need to watch the viewscreen for a trace from a foreign spaceliner taking off. The ident codes should tell me which ships are foreign.”

For ten minutes they watched and waited, then Larry said, “Here we are at last, I’ve got a suitable target. We’re committed now, start saying your prayers.”

He powered up the motors and lifted clear, aimed skyward and rammed the control stick forward. He accelerated up to Mach 5 to catch the departing spaceliner, oblivious to the sonic boom he was again spreading across the land below. Once established in the climb, he set up the hyperspace control for a random jump.

After a few seconds, the radio burst into life. This time Larry had set it to the departure channel for Zirtar traffic. “General broadcast from Zirtar Tower. Unidentified ship detected, climbing much too fast. Looks to be on an intercept course with liner three nine delta. Suspected to be related to terrorist activity earlier today. Military units are being scrambled to intercept. Liner three nine delta, do you copy the hostile traffic?”

“This is liner three nine delta, we copy the traffic. Are you going to take it out?”

“Zirtar Tower, this is Military One squadron just airborne. We have the hostile on screen. Initial missile wave launched. Current estimate is that he will be in contact with the liner before our missiles can intercept.”

He was right, the missiles weren’t going to catch them in time. Larry could see the liner visually now, they were closing fast. At the last moment, he braked hard to bring his speed back to match the liner and positioned himself under its belly. He rapidly nudged closer once he had a good match with its speed, until he was just meters away. The liner loomed above them, its long body stretching behind as well as in front. They were so close he could see every mark, and it felt as if he could reach up and touch it. He instinctively gripped the controls tightly. One twitch and he’d be crashing into the other ship.

“Zirtar Tower to Military One. What is the status of your attack?”

“The hostile got too close to the liner before our missiles could engage. We’ve had to abort. He’s so close his signal has merged with the liner. We can’t deploy lasers, cannons or anything unless we can separate him.”

“Okay, don’t take any chances, wait for a clear shot. Break. Liner three nine delta, did you read that last message? The hostile trace has merged with yours on our viewscreen. What is your situation?”

“Liner three nine delta, copied the message, we’ve lost his signal too. Shit, he must be somewhere right outside the window, but we don’t have him visual!”

“Roger three nine delta, please cancel your flight schedule and return to Zirtar. That should shake off your hostile.”

Larry swore vociferously. “That’s really torn it. Why didn’t I see that coming? Oh well, we’re already committed. Time for plan B.”

He thumbed his own transmit pad. “Liner three nine delta, this is the hostile behind you. Ignore that command and continue your climb. I have an attack missile armed and locked on your ship. I’m too close for an interceptor missile to be effective against my attack. If you try to launch a guard, or if you don’t follow my instructions precisely, please believe me, I will not hesitate to fire. You’re of no use to me if you return to Zirtar.”

“Liner three nine delta to Zirtar Tower, can you please advise whether your hostile is likely to be armed?”

Larry interrupted. “Trust me, I’m armed. I’m out of sight of your passengers at present, but I can entertain them to a fireworks demonstration if you force me.”

“Liner three nine delta to Zirtar Tower, be advised, I am complying with the hostile instructions. I am also declaring a class two emergency.”

“Liner three nine delta, my instructions are that you are to ignore the terrorist threats and allow us to deal with them.”

“Liner three nine delta to Zirtar Tower, the terrorist is your concern. Mine is for the safety of my passengers and ship. I have declared a class two emergency. I expect full co-operation from ground control.”

“That’s telling him,” said Larry.

He radioed again. “Hostile to liner three nine delta, please listen carefully. Speed up to Mach four immediately. You can blame me for the sonic shock wave. When we clear the atmosphere, build up steadily to 90% thrust and head straight out to the hyperspace boundary. No sudden changes and no maneuvering. Remember, if I lose you, you’re of no use to me any more.”

“Liner three nine delta to Zirtar Tower. Under the terms of our class two emergency I am adopting non-standard atmosphere departure at Mach four. Increasing speed now.”

In spite of the tension, Larry laughed. “The awkward sod is determined not to talk directly to me. Never mind, as long as he behaves, that’s fine.”

Karen said, “That was quite some bluff, wasn’t it? You never went anywhere near the missile control panel.”

“I’m not about to kill hundreds of civilians, but I didn’t think he’d take the risk. He has no idea who I am and Zirtar Tower is digging the hole deeper by calling me a terrorist.”

The radio came to life again.

“Military One to Zirtar Tower. We are in position, but we still can’t get a separate fix on the hostile without the liner being targeted. This guy is crazy, he’s right on top of the liner. If we attack, we’ll take out the liner as well. We need top level authorization if you wish us to proceed. Please advise.”

“Liner three nine delta and Military One, please switch to Zilon Director on channel eleven. He will handle this emergency from now on.”

Larry fumbled with the radio controls to select the new channel and continue to monitor the pursuit. He narrowly avoided hitting the liner as he accidentally nudged forward on the control stick. As he juggled with the stick to re-stabilize behind the other ship, he heard the new controller take over the situation.

“Zilon Director to Military One. Why do you have a problem attacking the hostile? Can’t you target his ident?”

“Negative. For some reason the hostile doesn’t have one. There’s no way of programming the missiles to distinguish a target by the absence of an ident.”

“Roger Military One. Hold fire at present. Continue to monitor the hostile unless you can target him without risk to the spaceliner. I’m seeking advice on whether you should attack regardless.”

That did not sound good. A cold shiver ran down Larry’s back. Surely they wouldn’t contemplate taking out the liner as well?

He used his radio transmit pad again. “Hostile to liner three nine delta. I suggest you launch a class two interstellar emergency probe. I’m deploying guard missiles now. Be ready with your own guards if you have them, but do not deploy until an attack is launched. You’ll have to rely on mine for the first wave. After that we’ll be in this together.”

He glanced at Karen. “Can you manage that for me? We’re about to clear the atmosphere and I need to concentrate on matching his acceleration when he goes. Deploy every defense missile we have in guard mode, the way I showed you.”

She reached across to the missile control console and launched the missiles with a few deft punches of the buttons. It was a relief not to have to juggle thrust and punch missile controls at the same time.

“Liner three nine delta to Zilon Director. Please be advised we are launching a class two interstellar emergency probe, and recording all communications on a class three emergency probe that we have on standby. We are also clear of atmosphere now, and building up thrust to 90%.”

That was a much better outcome than Larry could have hoped for. He slapped his knee. “Oh yes. What a result!”

He caught a glimpse of Karen’s puzzled frown as she said, “Larry, what have I missed? Have they not simply done what you told them to?”

Larry couldn’t reply straight away, the liner had started accelerating and he fell behind for a moment. He pushed too hard on his stick and almost rammed the liner. He nudged his ship sideways so that he wasn’t directly behind. Now he had to start his juggling act of matching accelerations with the ship ahead.

Once he had his own acceleration stabilized, so that he only needed small adjustments, he could spare time to answer Karen’s question. “It’s the class three emergency probe they mentioned. Interstellar emergency probes are a lot like message probes. Missiles won’t catch them, and they jump automatically through hyperspace to a central collection point. Class three is the absolute top level emergency. If he launches one of them there will be hell to pay over this incident. No matter what happens now, we’ve got a result.”

Her reply was unexpected. “Excuse me if I don’t share your enthusiasm. We will be just as dead if they do attack us.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

What was the matter with her? She seemed to be coping well, but maybe the tension was getting too much. “Karen, when you insisted on coming with me you knew it was a probable suicide mission. My priority is not survival, it’s getting something done about this Ziloni plot. The major inquiry that will follow a class three emergency declaration is bound to uncover something.”

Karen started to form another retort, but seemed to think better of it and broke off. Just as well, he didn’t need an argument. He was fully stretched again, maintaining concentration on keeping pace with the liner, which was performing a crazy dance in front of and above them. But he was getting better at the task, and the liner was following his instructions and making no sudden changes.

“Zilon Director, this is Military One again. What’s the status with that authorization?”

“Military One, I should get an answer shortly. Stand by.”

The radio went quiet. The minutes dragged by much too slowly. The continual battle to keep close up to the spaceliner was mentally exhausting. The planet was starting to shrink behind them as their speed built up, but it would take another seven or eight minutes to reach the boundary. If he slipped even for a moment and gave the military a clear shot, they’d be dead so close to safety. That was quite apart from the possibility that the military would be ordered to fire on the liner as well. The tension and the continuous staring made his vision feel blurred. He rubbed his eyes to clear them.

The radio came to life again. “Military One to Zilon Director. We are approaching the hyperspace boundary. If you decide you want us to attack this target we need that authorization soon.”

“Military One, this is Zilon Director. I’m still trying to get a decision, but it’s taking time to find someone with the necessary authority. Be ready for an immediate attack if the order comes through, or proceed at your own discretion if you wish.”

“Military One to Zilon Director, there is no way I’m going to take out a civilian liner without a specific order from a top level authority. You’d better get it through soon if you want this hostile stopped.”

The liner captain joined in. “This is liner three nine delta. Do you realize I have two hundred and fifty interstellar passengers on board? My class three probe is ready for immediate launch in event of a hostile action by your military, and all these communications are being recorded.” Larry wasn’t the only one feeling the tension. The poor sod he’d picked on for his ticket out must be worried sick as well.

When there was no response, Larry muttered, “Looks like he’s getting the cold shoulder treatment as well.”

Time to raise the ante a bit more. He broadcast, “Hostile to liner three nine delta. I’m Laren’hi Rasilii and the Ziloni seem so desperate to have me killed that you may end up as collateral damage. We seem to be in this together now. You can deploy guards any time you want.” If they were recording all the radio traffic they might as well include who the Ziloni were willing to wipe out a liner to silence.

The liner did not reply, but he was intrigued to see a blossom of missiles emerge from the rear of the liner, like seeds bursting from a ripened pod. It was an amazing sight. The missiles faithfully tracking the liner reminded him of a clutch of ducklings following a mother duck. He had never before seen live guard missiles visually. On the rare occasions that he had launched his own they were behind him. He had never heard of anyone getting close enough to another ship to see its missiles with the naked eye. They were only ever seen on the viewscreens.

He gave a whistle. “Look at the number of guard missiles he’s got. With that many, plus mine, we might see off the first attack wave.”

“Military One to Zilon Director, this is my final call. We’re less than two minutes from the boundary. If we are to make an attack we need that authorization right away. And I need authorization for a maximum capacity missile launch. That liner has a whole bunch of guards out.”

“Affirm, any authorization will include a non-standard-size attack wave. I’m expecting a decision any moment, be ready for immediate action on my command.”

****

Karen’s eyes locked on to the light on the hyperspace control, willing the light to turn blue. She realized she was holding her breath, but didn’t dare breathe out for fear of gasping and distracting Larry.

“Zilon Director to Military One, you are clear to attack. I repeat, you are ordered to launch your missiles.”

Oh God, this was it. They’d got so close, but now they were going to die, seconds before reaching safety.

“Military One, I need the authentication code before I launch this attack.”

“There’s no time, you need to attack at once.”

“Negative. I am not firing on the liner without the code.”

“Stand by, Military One.” There was no mistaking the snarl in the man’s voice.

All too quickly he spoke again. “Military One, the code is Intruder Defense.”

“Authentication code acknowledged. Launching attack now. May the saints have mercy on their souls.”

The viewscreen erupted in a mass of traces, that turned red as the display console identified them as a threat. It also triggered off the warning siren. At the same time, Karen saw the green trace of a class three emergency probe that lanced away from the spaceliner faster than even missiles could follow.

Larry slammed his control stick hard right and forward, and Karen once again felt the momentary lurch as the gravity compensator lagged behind the violent changes of thrust. She squeezed her eyes shut and tensed herself for the impact of the missiles, and death. Instead, she heard the radio again.

“This is Military One. The hostile has broken clear of the liner. All the missiles locked onto the liner so we’ve aborted that wave of missiles. But we have a clear lock on the hostile now. We are launching our remaining missiles at the target.”

The viewscreen indicated another mass of red traces and the siren went off again. Larry’s maneuver had put several kilometers between them and the military ships, but the red traces rapidly overhauled them. This time Karen was too mesmerized to close her eyes, but stared at the screen, transfixed in horror. At that moment, the hyperspace active light flashed blue!

Two hands streaked for the jump pad. Karen was closest and got there first. There was a brief blinding flash of light and the ship rocked violently despite the gravity compensator. At the same time, the now familiar tearing sensation of the hyperspace jump engulfed them.

****

Everything was quiet and still. The viewscreen had gone blank, the siren had stopped and nothing was visible through the canopy. Karen had the absurd thought that perhaps she had died and this was the afterlife, but then the overloaded shielding in the canopy recovered and cleared, to reveal a new arrangement of stars in an otherwise empty black sky.

Karen turned to Larry. “Larry, what just happened? Are we all right?”

He nodded slowly. “I think so. Hang on, let me run a diagnostic check.”

He hit a series of pads on his console, and watched as a different type of display came up on his viewscreen.

“We have a distortion in the hull at the rear, but within safety limits. Air pressure is holding. All other systems nominal. Hmm, the radiation report is interesting. We had a very brief burst of hard gammas, but no particles. Not enough to worry about, no worse than a year or two of x-rays.”

Interesting was not the word Karen would have used to describe the report, but she latched on to his last words – nothing to worry about. “What does that all mean, apart from the fact that we seem to be okay?”

“We’ve had an amazing escape. I would say that we took a direct missile hit, but the jump was so close to simultaneous that we only caught the barest leading edge of the impact.”

“I hope you didn’t mind me punching the jump pad. It was a reflex action when the light went blue. I didn’t know whether you had seen the light as well, and I knew the missiles were coming.”

Larry gave a slightly hysterical laugh. “Karen, I think you saved our lives. The split second you saved by getting to the pad first made all the difference.”

The shock caught up with Karen. She buried her face in her trembling hands and whispered, “I was so-o-o scared. I can’t believe we are still here.”

Larry moved across, squeezed beside her on the seat and put his arms round her. “It’s all right. It’s the effect of the adrenalin. But you were wonderful. Karen, we made it, we’re safe.” She could feel him shaking as well.

After about a minute, she looked up. “I’m okay now.”

He released her and returned to his own seat. She felt a flash of regret. She would have enjoyed having him continue to hold her.

She looked across at him. “I can still scarcely take it in that we have done it. Invaded a whole enemy planet and got out alive by the skin of our teeth.”

Then she added, “And I’m beginning to appreciate what a brilliant move that was, breaking away from the liner to give us more time.”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t really. I’d planned to do it if they launched an attack, to try to save the liner. I didn’t know whether the missiles would follow us or the liner, but it was the best I could do. I was feeling bad when I found out they might kill all those passengers just so they could get me. The military leader deserves credit too, for acting so quickly. Mind you, I suspect he was looking for an excuse to abort the attack. He didn’t sound too happy about it.”

Larry leaned back in his seat and stretched his arms above him. “Right, time to plan what to do next.”

“Are you going to take me home now? I guess you’ll be glad not to have to put up with me any longer.” With a shock she realized that she was no longer looking forward to getting back. She would miss Larry so much.

“I’m afraid I can’t take you home yet. First of all I can’t afford the time, I need to get this proof to the Union as soon as possible, before the Ziloni can take preventive measures. But most of all, they may not call off their ambush of Earth until they know for certain that I’ve passed on the information. I’m sorry.”

He might be sorry, but she wasn’t. She laughed. “Are you kidding? After all this time, all I have seen so far of other worlds is a hideous deserted red planet and half a dozen close brushes with death on your horror planet. I know I need to get home soon, but before this is over for good, I would love to see other worlds without being scared stiff the whole time.”

****

Larry smiled to himself. Why would you assume that I’ll leave you back on Earth forever once this is over? But he just said, “We still have a few problems to overcome. I’m a wanted fugitive all over the Union, and you’ll be classed as an illegal immigrant. If I simply turn up on their doorstep, I may not get a chance to show them my evidence before they throw me in jail and whisk you back to Earth.”

“Can’t you tell them you have important information that will clear you? It doesn’t matter about me if I will get in the way. Let them take me home.”

“No, I don’t dare risk that. I need to get this proof to my brother-in-law, Ket. I told you about him, remember?”

She nodded. “What about going back to Hideaway and sending another message probe to him. He could meet us there, and you could pass over the information.”

Larry scratched his chin, then said, “That’s a good idea, it might work. Hmm, but it will take time to process the message probe. Then Ket will need to fix up a covert flight to Hideaway. That won’t be easy for him, he doesn’t have a private ship like I do. Let me think about this.”

He put his head in his hands. He needed to get to Central fast, and without getting caught. And what about Karen? He couldn’t leave her on Hideaway, she’d risked her life to avoid that. Options buzzed in his mind.

Karen cleared her throat. “Larry, are you all right?”

He looked up at her and smiled. “Yes, I think I have a plan. What we need in order to get through is false identities, and I think I know the very place we can get them. There’s a planet called Drazen that’s an Associate member of the Union, but pretty bloody-minded and independent. They’re not as fussy as most about following the letter of Union law all the time. I have a contact there who can be very helpful when I want to bend a few rules, like having attack missiles on board. He should be able to put us in touch with someone who can fix up false IDs. But we still have problems even before that.”

“You mean getting false IDs is not a problem?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve worked it all out. First of all, there’s a risk of Drazen security picking me up on the wanted list the minute I arrive, but I’m hoping they won’t be bothering too much about checking for every minor fugitive. However, they only bend the rules a bit, they don’t run a coach and horses through them. There’s no chance they’ll let in an illegal immigrant. We’ll have to smuggle you in so we can get you fixed up with a false ID. Do you reckon you can manage that?”

“After what you’ve put me through already, I’m sure I can. No guns or missiles anywhere in sight, what a change.”

Larry shook his head in wonder. “You know, you would be perfect for the IEP. You must think about it after this is all over.”

She gave a nervous laugh, but made no other comment. She must think he was joking – never mind, time enough later to show he really meant it.

“I think we need to unwind a bit before anything else. Let’s eat now, we’ve had nothing to eat or drink since breakfast this morning.”

“I will make sandwiches. I need to be doing something. I think it’s the after-effects of the adrenalin.”

When Larry finished his sandwich, he dropped his plate in the recycler and fetched his computer. “I must find out what time it is at Roja. That’s our first destination spaceport on Drazen. We need to arrive in daylight, and not too late in the day. One of the problems with space travel is that all the planets have different day lengths, not to mention different time zones. So we work on a universal time that’s independent of day or night and we use computers to calculate what the time of day is at our destination.”

He gave a grunt of satisfaction. “It’s late there now. That’s handy. I’d rather sleep first and be fresh for our landing, but I didn’t want to sleep and find we’d lost a day.”

He found a bottle of lizan, a sparkling alcoholic drink, and they toasted their victory over the Ziloni. Afterward they retired to their bunks in their isolated location far between the stars.

As Larry lay there before he fell asleep, he thought back to the previous night. It had felt so good to hold Karen in his arms. He wondered about the possibility that it could happen again, because he felt a real attraction to the Earthgirl. He regretted giving in to his desire so soon, however. She seemed to be moody every now and then, and he had a feeling that it was when he showed any sign of hitting on her. Maybe she now believed that he had taken advantage of her fear the night before.

****

Karen’s thoughts were altogether more complex. On the one hand she had survived the nightmares of the day only by convincing herself that she was going to die, so that she could cope without being paralyzed with fear at the worst moments. Now she was experiencing a mixture of elation and disbelief that she was still alive. On the other hand, she had not been expecting to see this night. The joy of sexual intimacy with Larry was tempered by the fact that she was still alive to have regrets about her impetuosity.

She tossed and turned, her thoughts whirling. Part of her wished she was in Larry’s bunk again, the other part of her wished it had never happened at all.