Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [207]
“Now what?” She and BeBob raced to the cockpit, pulling their clothes back into place. Throwing herself into her seat, Rlinda spotted EDF Remoras streaking toward them, launched from the bay of a Manta cruiser that had followed them into the system. “They’re more persistent than the damned hydrogues.”
“How the hell did these guys find us in the hind end of space?” BeBob slid into the seat at his station. “Rlinda, how long was the Curiosity parked at the Moon base?”
“A couple of days. Why?”
She powered up the engines again and accelerated with a lurch. The Plumas system had only a few planets: a gas giant with a handful of moons, and a couple of blistered rocky planets close in toward the sun. Not many places to hide.
Scowling, BeBob played with the controls and ran a full system analysis, then took out a handheld power-source detector and adjusted its range to detect specific signaling frequencies. “I’ve got a ping! Those EDF bastards put a locator beacon aboard your craft.”
“On my ship?” Rlinda cursed with all the enthusiasm she could muster while still flying evasive maneuvers. She scanned ahead and pulled up a detailed projection of all objects in the system. “I’m heading toward that gas giant and its moons. It’s the closest thing to an obstacle course out here, and we’re not in any shape to outrun those fast fighter craft. My ship is still bruised.”
They soared across the emptiness with the pack of glistening Remoras hot behind them. BeBob trotted along the decks until finally the handheld detector zeroed in on a tiny self-powered tracer affixed with a magnet behind one of the ventilation plates. Grumbling, he removed it, strode toward the ejection chute, and happily dumped the telltale signaler out into space.
But it was already much too late. The Remoras were close behind them and eating up the remaining distance every second.
By the time he returned to the cockpit, Rlinda was already weaving through the outer orbits of the Plumas moons. She looked at him, her face serious. “How badly do you want to get away, BeBob?”
She saw him gulp as he gave the question due consideration. “They’ve already made up their minds to convict me, and our recent behavior sure isn’t going to earn me any clemency. Execution sounds like a more and more likely sentence. So...yeah, I’d like to get away pretty badly.”
“That’s all I wanted to know.” Rlinda drew a deep breath. “Let’s just hope the Curiosity can hold herself together.”
She dumped a supercharged flush of ekti into the reactors, and the ship blasted forward with an added boost that slammed them both back against their chairs. The Curiosity shot like a cannonball straight toward the looming gas giant.
“I said I wanted to get away, Rlinda,” BeBob said in a strangled voice, “not commit suicide.”
“That isn’t what I’m doing—at least I don’t think so. With that tracer gone, we have the chance to play hide-and-seek. But we’re going to have to do a damn good job of it. Those Remora pilots aren’t idiots.” She rehearsed her words, then transmitted to the pursuers, “Gentlemen, after seeing what sort of treatment the EDF gives its prisoners, we have no intention of being captured by you. We’d rather just burn up right here.”
The Curiosity plunged straight into the thickening clouds. The Remoras came after them, but slowed their pursuit. No doubt they were double-checking orders from the Manta’s commander.
As soon as her ship went deep enough to be invisible from scans, Rlinda altered course sharply. The ship began a tight, low orbit in the thick clouds, scribing a line across the gas giant’s equator. The Curiosity started shaking and rattling. The outer hull heated up, but Rlinda did not slow.
“This is your plan?” BeBob’s voice cracked with alarm.
“We went straight in like a bullet going sideways through a fat man’s belly.” She concentrated on her flying. “I’m hoping they’ll assume we burned up in the atmosphere...not to mention the fact that they