The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [137]
A low, insistent pinging made him open his eyes to see Berg frantically keying through screen menus.
‘What’s the problem?’ he said.
‘We’ve got company,’ the Tygran said, indicating the shuttle’s viewport with a tilt of the head.
Scattered across the black interplanetary void, Greg could see momentary flashes, one or two every few seconds. He was puzzled for only an instant.
‘Ships,’ he said. ‘Dropping out of hyperspace. That’ll be … ’
‘Not the Imisil,’ Berg said. ‘They’re Earthsphere warships!’
The shock news made his heart start to pound.
‘But … they’re not supposed to be … ’ He paused to compose his thoughts. ‘Are we in danger? How many are there?’
‘They’re coming through in a rough arc extending away from the gas giant so we shouldn’t be in any immediate peril,’ Berg said. ‘Numbers – currently thirty-six and rising.’
‘What’s the reaction from our superiors?’
‘Everyone has gone to combat alert. The remaining Vox Humana vessels including their flagship are moving off and the Vanquisher is with them. Should be about to make microjumps to Darien … yes, they’re away. And we’ve been advised by Lieutenant Ash to forget meeting the Vox-H admiral and to get the hell out, as he put it. I’ve signalled the Starfire to rendezvous with us in ten minutes—’
A dazzling flash of light blasted into the cramped cockpit, cutting him off. As it passed Greg blinked a few times then yelled at the sight of the ship now looming directly ahead, filling the viewport.
‘This boat better have an autoevasion system,’ said Berg as he braced himself against the console. ‘Or else we’re dead meat.’
The autopilot applied braking thrusters to angle the shuttle away, yet still the warship seemed to be all that was in front of them. Its name was spelled out across the stretch of stern hull plating – Tiberius, its black capitals growing ever larger … until the shuttle’s autopilot finally got it on a parallel course, sweeping across the upper hull, missing a sensordome by metres.
Greg gave a shaky laugh then noticed that Berg still looked grim.
‘What?’ he said. ‘What now?’
‘They’re activating their grappler field. I might be able to … ’
‘Unidentified small craft, this is ESS Tiberius – come about, power down your drive and prepare to be brought … wait, sir, what are you doing?’
As Greg and Berg stared at each other, a second voice came over the link.
‘I ordered you to target and destroy that vessel, orders that you disobeyed in a war zone … you know what the punishment for mutiny is … ’
There was a sudden chorus of angry voices, some of them shouting about new orders, then the channel went dead.
‘What … the hell was all that about?’ Greg said.
‘Not sure,’ said Berg. ‘But those grapplers have been switched back to standby mode, which is the signal for us to put some distance between us and them … ’
Berg had also sent a brief message to the Starfire and less than ten minutes later the shuttle rejoined its mothership. Even before he left the shuttle, Berg was ordering the bridge officers to ready the navigationals for a microjump to the Darien vicinity. But when they entered the Starfire’s bridge the face of Lieutenant Ash was on the holopanels, waiting.
‘Mr Berg, Mr Cameron,’ he said. ‘Nice to see you back in one piece. Now, rather than cross half the system to join us, we want you to take up a position near that gas giant and monitor developments as they unfold.’
‘Developments?’ Greg said with a frown.
‘The Earthsphere fleet is not making any move or preparation in the direction of Darien,’ said Berg, who was studying data-streams on his holoconsole.
‘Exactly so,’ said Ash. ‘Something is very wrong aboard some of those ships. Half of them aren’t in formation and a few are still where they were on exiting hyperspace.’
‘We overheard an argument during a communication from one of them, the Tiberius,’ said Berg. ‘Something about new orders, and it sounded like a fight was about to break out.’
Ash nodded. ‘The Imisil long-range sensors have been picking up a lot of ship-to-ship messaging on the subject. Seems that the Earthsphere