By day eight, life aboard the Evermore had ripened into something cohesive—busily routine. Jackie spent more and more time in the galley. She somehow figured out what the unique appliances were used for. The result was an astonishing array of gourmet food—breakfasts, lunches, and dinners—from good ol’ home-style southern cooking to inventive meals, originating from far away, in other star systems—on other planets.
To Cuddy’s growing regret, there were no more intimate moments with Jackie like the one they had on the bridge. He shrugged it off, knowing they both were far too busy. Busy to the point lack of sleep was starting to take its toll on him. Yet, if he were honest with himself, there actually were some brief occasions when a few stolen moments might have been possible. Did she regret what they’d done together, he mused. Had her feelings changed? How could he blame her? He had no idea what he was doing—was way out of his comfort area.
Tony and Kyle, when they weren’t planted in front of the entertainment system, watching Pashier thrillers, intergalactic nature films, or even an errant love story, were tasked with delivering to Brian—confined in his sole occupancy compartment—three square meals every day. Plus, help in the assembly of eleven additional AI orb units that Cuddy had recently discovered. Hold #2, he found, had its own stash of spare orb parts.
The grand plan was for the eleven orbs to become their dutiful army. Getting them to that point required assistance from both Tony and Kyle. Cuddy and Bob taught them how to do basic assembly work—mainly installing the gel-tabs—then configure each individual orb with capabilities not previously required by the Pashier.
Cuddy entered the bridge, finding Bob at the controls, and heard an unintelligible Howsh conversation in progress. As Cuddy approached, Bob made a settings change and suddenly the alien’s words were translated into English.
Cuddy asked, “What are we listening to?”
“A deep-space channel has just been acquired. Eavesdropping into it, Sub-Forgue Molth is speaking with Lorgue Prime Eminence Norsh—currently in high orbit around Primara—who commands the other half of the Howsh fleet.”
“Crap… I didn’t anticipate that. At least, not yet.” Cuddy listened to what they were discussing—Eminence Norsh sounded irritated.
“No! Your orders were to destroy the Evermore, destroying the heritage pod in the process. It was a simple directive. Any idiot could follow those orders,” Norsh said.
Sub-Forgue Molth said, “I assure you, Your Eminence, we are escorting Lorgue Supreme Eminence Calph. He was marooned on Earth… for ten years. His knowledge of the Howsh…”
Norsh cut him off, “You truly are an idiot, Molth. Whoever is on board that vessel is no more Lorgue Prime Eminence Calph than I am. You think it’s a coincidence you haven’t been able to establish visual verification by scanning that vessel? Stupid fool… you’ve been duped. All you’ve accomplished is to provide an escort for our enemy!”
Cuddy cringed. He’d hoped for a bit more time—to be closer to Primara before the deception was discovered. He asked Bob, “How close are we?”
“Not far. We will reach Primara in several days, at our current FTL rate of speed, Captain.”
Cuddy glanced over at the Viewscape display, showing the symbolic, V-formation view of the small Howsh fleet, with the Evermore sited in its center.
“It’s game time, Bob. We need to disable all of those ships… and we need to hurry,” Cuddy said. Although the timing was not perfect, he felt they were ready. Three hours earlier, the eleven newly constructed AI orbs were discreetly released, one at a time, through an underbelly airlock. Using their clawed articulating arms, they maneuvered themselves around the Evermore’s fuselage underbelly, where they now clung, awaiting orders.
“Deploy the orbs, Bob. And cross your fingers they go undetected.”
“The orbs have been deployed… are en route to their intended targets.”
Cuddy watched the display. The orbs, tiny blue icons, quickly went out into space, all except one, moving farther and farther away from the Evermore. The icons, then organizing into sets of two, reached their intended Marauder ship targets. Once there, they located some irregularity on the hull’s surface—some external structure—significant enough to cling to.
“Two orbs have dislodged, Captain.”
Cuddy, already noticing, thought it unfortunate that they both had come loose from the same Marauder. Damn. He watched the display as the two blue icons spun ineffectively off into space. Fortunately, they had anticipated the possibility of such a thing occurring.
“Deploy the backup orb,” Cuddy said.
Bob did as ordered, and the last orb, still clinging to the Evermore’s underbelly, sped off into space toward its intended Marauder target. Cuddy watched as the blue icon descended upon the Howsh ship. Making contact, it seemed to have found a way to secure itself, but then, like the other two orbs, it too spun off into space.
“That is the command ship, Captain Perkins. I apologize I did not determine that earlier. Apparently, that one vessel is equipped with advanced security measures—energized hull plating. The orbs’ electronics were fried as soon as they came in contact with that particular Marauder command ship.”
Cuddy glanced around the bridge—no one had any answers.
“They are powering weapons, Captain Perkins!”
“Hurry… raise our shields! Drop us out of formation.”
Cuddy felt G-forces pulling on him as the Evermore banked away from the Howsh fleet.
“Taking evasive action,” Bob said.
Bright red energy bolts could be seen crisscrossing from out the forward and side observation windows.
“Go ahead and initialize the orbs… put them to work,” Cuddy ordered, which was the key component of their phase two plan. If that doesn’t work, well… Cuddy didn’t want to think any further about it. It had taken Bob four days to determine the potential technological weakness on that specific Howsh star-fighter model—a nondescript maintenance access panel, located on each ship’s underbelly, near the warship’s stern. And, at that very moment, the other deployed pairs of orbs were making their way to that exact access panel.
“You said it would be possible to get feeds from each the orbs… right?”
The viewscape display split into eight squares—each displaying the POV of individual orbs.
Cuddy was suddenly thrown from his feet as three consecutive plasma strikes hammered into the Evermore. Flat on his back, he looked up at the Viewscape display. The orb icons were supposed to turn from blue to green, once even one in the pair managed to breach the maintenance access panel. But… thus far… none had turned green.
Chapter 47
Cuddy noticed the others, lying on the deck too, had also been thrown off their feet. Apparently, the G-force dampeners were down. Desk papers were scattered all about. Bob, still hovering at the console, was taking the Evermore through a fast series of evasive maneuvers, which didn’t allow them to do anything more than find something to hold on to and wait it out. Cuddy peered around Tony, to his right, and saw Jackie’s cheek bleeding. It didn’t look too serious, but he wanted to reach out to her just the same.
Jackie, sitting up, pointed to the display. “Green! They are starting to turn green!”
Cuddy followed her pointing finger to the Viewscape display. Sure enough, one by one, the individual frames around the eight video feeds were changing from blue to green. He hauled his body across the deck to get a closer view of the one pair still showing blue. Working as a team, the orb pair was in the process of prying open the Maurader’s access panels, using their powerfully clawed digits. One orb did manage to pry up a small corner of a panel, but as the panel began to curl back on itself, the orb very quickly managed to open it far enough for the second orb to extend its articulating arm deep inside the breached cavity. Although out of view, Cuddy knew the orb was probing the interior of the space, seeking a specific, thick conduit bundle that supplied power to each of the warship’s major systems—including tactical/weaponry, navigation, and the propulsion drive regulators. The feed frame suddenly changed from blue to green as the orb withdrew its articulating arm. It had severed the conduit bundle successfully.