CH2
Kate sat quietly and waited. Since they were in a sealed ship there was no way for either of them to smell the Hunters. No way of knowing just what was going on. Then Kate saw a signal on one of her screens.
"Hang on over there, we are leaving." Kate mentions to Lanie.
The inertial dampers prevent either of them from noticing the movement of the ship, only Kate's screens tell her what is happening.
Kate has cleared the cave and is working on raising straight vertically as fast as she could get this antique to go. As soon as she was just below the cliff face Kate applied power to the engines and started traveling down the length of the canyon. Using the walls of the canyon to prevent any shots to strike the ship.
At a mile out she went vertical and increased to 100% power. Anyone within miles would have heard the sonic boom when Kate did this. Since there were no buildings near here, nothing was damaged.
It only took a few minutes. "We have feet wet." Kate announces. "Damn it, we also have company." Kate could see a ship coming up on their six rising from the planet.
"Do I want to know?" Lanie asked.
Kate shook her head. "No you don't, it's the Hunter ship that was sitting above us."
Kate was soon cursing, the Hunter's ship was gaining on them and Kate had already pushed her engines to 120% and knew that she couldn't hold this speed for long.
Kate was watching her screens and they were still gaining. "We're in trouble Lanie." Kate finally told her.
Kate decided to do what she could and dove for the closest gas giant to try and get its gravity to increase her speed. As soon as Kate noticed a slight increase in speed from this maneuver she increased power to 130% and watched the speed increase.
Problem was the increase on the engines was starting to get into the dangerous levels, red lining them was burning them up. Just if the engines didn't blow the Hunter's would blow them up. Pick your poison.
Then there was a sudden huge surge of energy and it was centered on the Hunter's ship.
"They're gone!" Kate yelled out. "My money is on one of dad's little toys." Kate was dancing in her seat turning to look at Lanie who was looking up thanking somebody she couldn't see.
Kate kept the engine power up until she was on the other side of the gas giant. The blast from her dad's little toy had been blocked by the gas giant so they were safe from the shock wave.
Kate reduced the engine power to 70% and continued her maneuver to escape the system.
It had been a couple of hours and Kate had been quiet. "How are we doing?" Lanie asks, since she didn't remotely understand almost anything about this ship.
"The scanner is clear, so no signs of pursuit. The fuel system is full and the engines looked to have been worked on recently. The controls are a little sluggish, probably because they are 2nd generation. This ship is not exactly state of the art.
I should be able to activate the Star Drive in a few days. How is the medical?" Kate answers her question and asks one of her own.
"Pretty much like the rest of this ship. Antiquated but functioning for the most part, the scanner is operating, the onboard EMH is corrupted and non-operational and since I'm not a programmer it's going to stay that way. The refrigerator is however packed to the gills, so we should be fine.
It just depends on how far we are going and how often we can go without to make it last longer." Lanie explains. "So where are we going?" Lanie wanted to know.
"The tormented zone." Kate tells her shrinking to try and close her ears knowing what was coming.
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?" Kate was not disappointed. "No one goes there." Lanie points out the obvious.
"Precisely why we are going, no one goes there. Meaning no one will follow us, and unless it has escaped your attention, we are on the run for our lives." Kate points out.
Lanie knew that. She was only all too aware that they were being hunted. "That area will rip this ship to shreds. The electromagnetic storms are why no ship can survive in there." Lanie wasn't up on everything about ships, but everyone knew better than to enter there.
"That's the best part about this antique; it isn't state of the art. The EMH that isn't operational anyway is the most modern part of this ship. This baby is practically fly by wire meaning there is little for the storms to affect." Kate points out grinning, liking her idea immensely.
"And what if there isn't a planet in there for us to land on?" Lanie still hated this idea.
"Then it just became my best and last brilliant idea." Kate was still smiling at Lanie who huffed and went back to the medical area to look the place over a little more closely, since they were both about to die.
This place was going to be home for the two of them, she just didn't know for how long.
Lanie noticed that Kate spent the next 2 days working on the engines, Kate knew she had stressed them badly and wanted to do some maintenance on them.
When Kate wasn't doing that she was sitting in her chair looking at her screens. "Anything?" Lanie asked. Knowing what Kate was looking for. Jim and Johanna may be Kate's parents but Lanie had learned to love them like they were here parents too.
Lanie had only been with them since she was 5, and even now Lanie was having trouble picturing her parents in her mind. When she thought of the word parents Jim and Johanna came to mind.
Kate shook her head. "The screens are clear except for the standard mining ships for this system."
The planet they had just left was actually a moon around a gas giant that was a mining colony. They were mining material from other moons as well as the asteroid belt. It also doubled as a dumping ground for old space ships that were to be scrapped.
Perfect place for Jim to find two ships for them in case they needed them and get the necessary parts to repair them.
Four days after leaving the planet. "All strapped in?" Kate asks looking at Lanie who signaled she was all set. "There's still nothing on the screens. … Where are you damn it!" Her parents are supposed to be right behind them.
"Do we wait?" Lanie asks her not really wanting to do this alone anymore than Kate did.
Kate shook her head. "We only have just so much in the galley, the longer we wait the harder it's going to be on us later, and my throat is already burning." Kate points out getting Lanie to nod her head. Her throat was hurting her too.
"I'm going to activate the Star Drive, here we go." Kate crossed her fingers. Both of them soon felt the conversion to FTL.
"We didn't blow up!" Kate lifted her hands up into the air. It was overly dramatic and she knew it, but this ship was an antique and her dad might be a genius, but there is always that little grain of doubt.
Laine started undoing her restraints. "Ok into the scanner with you." Lanie tells Kate standing up. Getting Kate to moan. She knew it was necessary, it was just that she didn't want to know the answer.
They had already agreed during those four days to make the galley last as long as possible, and that meant using the scanner to determine how long between each meal they could each go.
Kate laid down on the table and watched the scanner bar pass over her body once and then back down to the other end.
Kate sat up. "AND?"
"22 hours from now maximum." Lanie tells her. Getting Kate to moan. Her throat was already on fire. Kate was convinced she was going to lose the ability to talk soon.
"Ok girlfriend, you're turn." Kate gets up and offer Lanie to take her place. Pressing the same buttons Lanie had pressed.
Two passes later, Kate read out what was listed. "16 hours from now maximum." Kate tells her. Listening to Lanie moan too for the same reason.
"If we're going to be this far off from each other we're going to have to be separated from each other. I don't know if I can handle watching you knowing that I can't." Kate actually massaged her throat since it was on fire already.
"I need to set the timers for our notification. After that we need to do another scan to determine when the next meal is. Likely have to do that after each one." They didn't have the luxury of repeating the time they waited all the time. Things change.
Lanie set up the timers. "Now what?" This ship was only just so big. The galley doubled as the lounge. There were 3 bunk beds they could use that were across from each other.
There was the bridge, engine area, just the one bathroom and a little bit of cargo space that presently was filled up mostly with a small 2 man shuttle along with what spare parts Jim could find that would work on a Talyn.
There was the water holding tank, air scrubbers, artificial gravity system and even a small greenhouse area that had a few plants.
Be it ever so small, it was home.
16 hours later with Kate sitting in her chair on the bridge watching her screens, Lanie was only too happy to pull a single bag from the refrigerator and place it in the microwave to warm it up.
Listening to the microwave ding, Lanie pulled out the nice warm bag and stabbed a straw into it and started to suck. The feeling of it going down her throat slowly erased the burning sensation in her throat. IT FELT SO GOOD!
Once Lanie was done Lanie cut open the bag and licked every last drop out of it before dropping it into the trash, to be ejected out into space later.
Her throat felt so much better as did the rest of her. Lanie was strong again and moved over to the scanner and laid down and pressed the button for herself. After her two passes, she had her answer.
Lanie however was too wired to moan about the time till the next one, so she headed for the storage area where there was a small amount of weight equipment so she could burn off some of the buzz she now had.
6 hours later it was Kate's turn. Kate pulled out a single bag, dropped it into the microwave and waited for it to ding. Pulling out the nice warm bag and puncturing it with a straw, Kate started to suck.
Just like Lanie 6 hours later, her burning throat started to feel better. Cutting open the bag after she was done to lick up every last drop, then dropping the empty bag into the trash. Next came the scanner so she could find out when the next one was.
Then Kate joined Lanie in the storage area to work off the buzz Kate now had.
Three months later Lanie was strapped in again on the bridge waiting for Kate.
"Ok, here we go. Conversation to normal space in 3, … 2, … 1, ..." And they both felt the strain of the ship leaving FTL.
"And?" Lanie was dying to know.
"We're right where we want to be, and the engines obviously didn't blow up." Kate comments, knowing she had been tending to them for the last 3 months.
Kate had also been working on the atmospherics. Cleaning the scrubbers as well as taking out parts and cleaning them.
"Even better there is a huge cargo ship headed out of the system." Kate made a course correction so she could intercept it.
"And that's a good thing because?" Lanie didn't see what Kate was so happy about.
"I'm going to bring us along side it, nice and quiet without using the engines and give us away to their sensors. If we are in close enough we will be inside their field when they go to FTL." Kate was smiling as she watched her screens.
"You're still losing me here." Land and Kate had traveled before, except Kate's parents had done all the flying while Lanie sat in the back waiting for when she was needed.
"Hiding in their field and going where they go will mask our trail, making it that much harder for any Hunters on our tail to find us." Kate explains.
It now made sense to Lanie, just one flaw. "We don't know where this cargo ship is going." Lanie points out.
"Doesn't matter, after they exit FTL, we're going to leave them and go somewhere else before heading to the Tormented Zone and crossing over." Kate explains her plan.
"Any idea on how long we will be staying with the cargo ship?" Lanie was trying to think ahead, plus she was already tired of waiting until her throat was almost literally on fire before drinking.
"If mom and dad are correct, this cargo ship should only be a 2 month trip. Followed by a 2 month trip to our next stop. We can decide what to do when we get there before leaving for the Tormented Zone." Kate explains. "Do we have enough for that length of trip?"
"Just depends on how long we are in this Tormented Zone of yours." Lanie counters.
Kate deflates. "It's not MY Tormented Zone."
"This is your idea girlfriend, so that makes it yours." Lanie counters.
It was now 2 months later:
Both Kate and Lanie were in bed when they suddenly converted to normal space, getting Kate to run to the bridge, with Lanie a little behind her.
"Where are we?" Lanie was curious.
"I'm working on it, give me a minute." Kate was trying to look at her scans on her screens.
"Well we pretty much went the right way. I'm going to use the maneuvering thrusters to coast away from the cargo ship. As soon as we are far enough away we can maneuver far enough out to activate our Star Drive and head to our next stop." Kate started working with her controls.
One day later Kate activated the Star Drive and was happy again when the engines didn't blow up. Not that she thought that they would. It was just that they were so old, you never knew what might go wrong. And she had pushed them pretty hard that first day.
It was now 2 months later:
Kate and Lanie were back on the bridge all strapped in. "Ok, here we go. Exiting FTL t normal space in 3, … 2, … 1, …." And the by now all too familiar pull had them straining against the restraints kicked in.
"PERFECT!" Kate was happy with herself. They were just outside of the atmosphere of a gas giant in a system that had just the one habitable planet.
Kate set course for the magnetic polar north of the gas giant and parked the ship there. Hoping the location would interfere with everyone's ability to detect them.
Kate turns to Lanie. "Now we have a decision to make. Do we go on and enter the Tormented Zone or do we stop here and get some supplies." Meaning do we break into a building somewhere and steal what they want or need.
"We only have about 3 months left." Lanie tells her. "How long to the Tormented Zone from here?" That would likely make the choice for them.
"About 2 more months." Kate cringes knowing that, that only left them 1 month of supplies. And she knew nothing about the Tormented Zone. Not its size or what they would find, if there was anything to find.
And the trip had already been hard on them. Their throats were already burning since it had been a few days.
"I guess that makes our choice easy then." Lanie points out. They steal.
It took another 2 days for them to come up with a plan. Most of the hospitals were in the middle of cities, everyone did so that was nothing new. They were too big to land anywhere and not be noticed, so that left them the shuttle down in the cargo/storage bay.
Let the shuttle drop through the atmosphere like a meteorite would, and just before they hit fire up the engines and hug the ground. Land on the roof of the hospital late at night, keeping all the exterior lights off.
Take out the first 2 workers they came across and take their ID tags and let Lanie guide them to the right section. Take what they need, bluffing their way all the way to and from. Then fly back to the ship and leave immediately.
Still it would be nice to have a diversion, something for security to be busy with. Just not busy where they wanted to be.
Kate began searching the cargo/storage area again looking for something that might be useful, finally finding something that might do the trick.
It was small, held a flammable substance and if exposed to the cold with a small leak, it just might give them what they want. Now they needed a hospital in a cold zone.