“Hungry. We went looking for supplies, and we’ve come back with more mouths to feed.” A loud beeping had begun emitting from Aileena’s console, one she silenced with the flick of a switch. “I get what you’re saying though.”
“We won’t be a burden,” Akob said, speaking for the crowd. “We’ve got some mechanics, a doctor, and the rest of us will do anything. Help with those fields, put up some buildings, whatever you need.”
“I could even help get your security a little more professional. You said it’s ex-troopers, right? How about an ex-colonel to keep them in line?” Ivona had a wicked smile. It was an excellent offer, though Gurrit might not be pleased.
“Ex-colonel, huh?” Aileena said. “Packing it in?”
“Like I’ve said, I joined to help people. Sounds like I’d be doing that here.”
“Fair enough.” There was another beeping coming from Aileena’s console, louder this time.
Michael peered over the divide between levels. He had been making a conscious effort to pay more attention to how the ship was run. He even planned on asking Aileena to give him lessons, though the right opportunity to ask hadn’t come up.
“That alarm is going off again,” Michael said.
“Different alarm, that last one was proximity. This one is for when we detect an incoming jump tunnel,” Brekt said casually. His face dropped when he realised what he had said, his hands tapping the buttons to activate the Seeker’s cannon.
“Get everyone into gel chairs now,” Aileena shouted, pushing a nearby Purnaxian with one hand. “Use the pads like on launch.”
“Who the hell knows we’re here?” Michael said as he took his seat on the gel couch. “This is the middle of nowhere.”
As if in answer to his question, two ships emerged from jump space. Long dark blocks, heads turning to face the Seeker, staring with vibrant red eyes. The Unmind had found them. Worse than that, they had skipped chasing them to the first jump point, instead, meeting them at Eden, just minutes after the Seeker had arrived. Somehow the Unmind knew where they were going.
“Hang on,” Aileena said, sending the ship into a series of evasive spins. “Get Eden on the line! They’ve got to start spinning up that jump drive!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Seeker twirled through space. It would be almost graceful, were it not a desperate set of motions designed to evade fire. The sinister Unmind vessels hadn’t opened up with their guns, yet, but Aileena was taking no chances as she wrestled the controls of the Seeker in her hands. She knew that if they decided to fire at this range then no fancy flying would help, not really, but simply sitting still was to accept death. She had never done that before, and she wasn’t going to start now.
This was the worst job she had ever taken on. Constant danger, strange worlds, and any chance of being paid had been destroyed along with Cortica. In theory, she and Brekt were free to leave, their contract long since fulfilled in the eyes of the guild. They hadn’t though, the people fleeing Cortica had needed their help, then those people had become the citizens of Brekt’s landing, now she had found herself helping yet more refugees. Some members of the guild would have chewed her out over working for free, but Aileena had always been a soft touch, something she tried her best to hide. The only reason she had taken this job, to begin with, a crazy plan to steal someone from the Council’s most sacred world, was because she needed the money to help the monks who raised her rebuild their monastery.
“How in the Rhythm did they find us?” Aileena shouted as she sent the ship into another spin. “They had to have known where we were going.”
“Maybe they could detect Eden?” Michael said. “You know with their alien super-sensors or something?”
“Not a thing!”
“Flat artificial worlds weren’t a thing until a few weeks ago.”
“This isn’t helping.” Aileena twisted the controls again, flying the ship by feeling alone. There wasn’t enough time to plan out anything complex. “Brekt! The guns?”
“They aren’t shooting us, yet. Shooting them might set them off.” Brekt’s voice was its usual soft calming tone. It was immediately obvious to everyone in the control room why he was a successful mercenary. It was rare that he cracked under pressure.
“I’m with the Merc,” Ivona said. “If we’re going to go down, we should at least go down shooting.”
“Can we just… not go down at all? How long until we can jump out of here?” Michael knew the answer, he had experienced enough jump space trips by now to understand how it worked, but he was spiralling. “Or we could land on Eden? Maybe it’s got defences after all? Or we could turn and run, lead them away? Maybe the ships we have left can form a defensive line or maybe they can evacuate the town?”
“Does he usually babble like this?” Ivona was glaring Michael, one eyebrow raised, the horn above jutting into the air.
“Yeah, this is normal.” Aileena didn’t look up from her controls. “He’ll tire himself out in a moment.”
Red light swept over the control room, a crimson tide that washed over everything, creeping into every corner. Aileena could feel the machines stare, even across this distance. She didn’t like it, there was this unsettling feeling that the ship was staring into her soul.
“Attempting communication,” a voice boomed through the console by Mellok. An incoming message, one the Cortican had accepted without thinking. “Subject to be indexed within vessel. Subject to present themselves for indexing.”
“Shut that off!” Ivona said. “Last thing we need is hearing those things ranting at us. Trust me, they don’t say anything useful. Most of the time they don’t even acknowledge you.”
“Second warning. Subject to present themselves for indexing.”
“They really want you.”
“Great. Good. They can join the long queue of people who want me. Just behind the people who think I’m a messiah, the Council, and that credit card I keep forgetting to pay off.” Michael was gripping the straps on the couch tightly, even as the gel cradled him. He couldn’t feel the swirling motions of the Seeker, they weren’t close enough to Eden for the artificial gravity to switch off yet.
“Oh yes, switching off comms,” Mellok said as he shut down the message. “My apologies.”
Ivona leant forward, her long hair sticking to the gel of the chair slightly. “Picking something up coming off that… planet? It’s huge, sensors seem to be identifying it as a ship?”
A light began to blink on Mellok’s panel. Another incoming message working its way across the depths of space.
“No, don’t answer it aga-” Ivona began.
“Hello? Seeker this is the Sword. Kestok here, you read me?”
“Ah Kestok,” Mellok said. “It is good to hear from you, though this is rather an unfortunate time.”
“Look, Kestok,” Aileena said. A Hologram of Kestok had appeared above all the consoles on the bridge. “Is Eden getting ready to jump?”
“Yeah, we got that message. Takes a few hours for it to do that though, so it’s a bit of a moot point. We’re assuming our friends up there aren’t friendly?”
“Nope. You’ve got the dubious pleasure of seeing two ships of the Unmind Index.”
“Rhythm help us, I thought they were a myth?” Kestok shook his head. “You were supposed to come back with supplies, not whatever these things are. The Sword is on its way up to assist. You’ll want to get behind us.”
“What? You said the shields were a no-go,” Aileena said. “Trust me, these things throw out an insane amount of firepower. These two took on an entire Council fleet for hours. You won’t have a chance.”
“Oh, hello, hi!” Skorra had barged her way into the hologram, pushing Kestok out of the way as she did. “We found a way to get the shields working again! Better than before, hopefully.”