What May Come

Please see chapter 1 for author's notes. Chapter 24 should be going up at some point in the next day or two…it was sent for beta'ing with the past three just posted but has a few issues with pronoun use during fight scenes and needs a little more revision.

Chapter 23: Getting Home

Radu looked at the console in front of him, and then snapped around to stare at the human beside him. "This is it!"

"What? What are they talking about?"

Before Radu could answer, the translation program kicked in and the hisses and snarls of the Spung language became recognizable Standard. "—eats: Thirteen enemy ships captured and towed to Alhirk, bringing the total to 117. Fifty-seven new prisoners have been brought in for interrogation from these ships, promising considerable intelligence to bring this war to a swift close. We have also recaptured the nexus point at Harshala and are moving towards Kents. Message from battle group seven led by Warlord Vocec repeats: Thirteen enemy ships captured and…."

"All right, we've got a military channel!" Harlan moved to the intercom on the wall. "Commander, we've got something. Encryption code 57c02."

"What? That isn't one we're even close to checking," Suzee said.

"I figured—well, Radu said something about talking more when we were fighting, and it made sense that they'd be a lot of ships using military encryption during a war, so we decided to check a couple of the more commonly used frequencies. Took a couple tries, but we've got a channel that's passing messages from a battle group—they're talking about capturing ships."

"All right, you two keep listening on that frequency; see if you can find out any more information. If nothing useful comes in, work towards more common encryptions and see if you can find any more likely candidates—if you do, make sure to mark them. Suzee and I will work from there towards less likely encryptions and see if we can pull any more."

"All right, Commander. Radu, are they saying anything else?"

Radu had been splitting his attention between the comm and Harlan's conversation with the commander and shook his head. "The same message just keeps repeating. Want to mark it and try the next encryption?"

"Let's give it a try."

Once they'd gotten one positive result, it was easier to keep working, and before the commander called a halt in the proceedings two hours later they'd identified six other likely possibilities besides the first. The four of them met back on command, where Goddard and Suzee had five more channels worth examining. "Did you hear anything about the Christa?" Radu had to ask.

"Nothing specific, but we did hear about other captured ships. It's almost like too much of a good thing, really," Suzee answered. "All the encryption codes we found around that first one were military…we pulled out the most likely, but I'm afraid we're going to miss something if we keep switching between them."

"Same here," Harlan agreed. "Hey, we heard something in the first message about where some captured ships were taken—Alhirk. Sound familiar?"

Goddard nodded. "We heard that name too. If they're taking all the captured ships to the same location, it makes sense they would take the Christa there too. After all, it will have security, guards in place…"

"So we just have to find this Alhirk?"

Radu glanced over at Harlan. "Ships aren't small…it shouldn't be too hard to find a bunch of them penned up in one place."

"Let's get to it, then, people. The main reason I interrupted the search now is that a security ship has passed us twice in the past half an hour. No one has tried to make contact yet, and I'd like to be elsewhere before they do."

Radu moved to the navigation console, bringing up starcharts of their immediate area. He didn't see anything that looked immediately like a storage area for ships, and no planets bore that name, but… "Here. It's a military output about two hours away from here. There's not much around it…it's on the eleventh planet."

"Not much of a planet," Harlan commented as Radu transferred the image to the main screen.

"If there's nothing there, it's a good reason for civilians to stay out of the area," Goddard pointed out. "We just have to find a way to get ourselves close enough to find the Christa."

"If there are a bunch of ships there, it shouldn't be too hard to hide ourselves among them," Suzee pointed out.

Radu shook his head. "We have to get past whatever perimeter they have set up first." And that wouldn't be easy…judging by the scans they had of the area, there wasn't much that could be used as cover.

"They can't have ships posted around the entire perimeter," Goddard said firmly. "We'll try and follow other traffic in—maybe attach ourselves to one of the groups bringing in captured ships—but if that doesn't work we'll stay as far away as possible while maintaining sensor contact and after whatever patrol-ships they have working are passed we'll slip in. I suspect they're concentrating more on keeping ships from leaving than preventing others from joining them. Mr. Radu, lay in a course. Mr. Band…"

"On it, Commander."

As soon as he had the course laid in, Radu felt the ship begin to move. It almost didn't feel real…that after the hectic days of searching they were actually going to see the Christa again. Find the rest of the crew. At least he hoped so…they were all assuming the others had been left onboard. If that wasn't true, he wasn't sure what they'd do. But there was no point in bringing up trouble….it seemed to find them well enough on its own. He glanced up at the pilot and grinned. It had been a little bit of a surprise that the other boy hadn't realized what he'd done back on the Christa—he wasn't usually very good at hiding when he was joking. He still had been a little angry back then though. This argument had just been stupid. Anyway, at least they were back on speaking terms—the last couple hours had passed a lot more pleasantly than the last couple days. The next hour passed faster than any of the rest, and Radu felt his jaw drop as an image came up on the main screen. They hadn't expected to see anything until they were at least past the tenth planet. "How long has this war been going on?" The others on the command post were silent, staring out at an expanse of ships none of them had expected. There was no way they were all from some border skirmish—there had to be hundreds of different types of ships out there. Ships from hundreds of different races, even, judging by the configurations. Some of them were obviously damaged beyond repair; others looked as though they were ready to head for the front lines. "How are we ever going to find her?"

"At least it's probably a safe assumption that she's in there somewhere," Goddard said after a moment. "Lets concentrate on getting into the field and then we'll start a more systematic search. Any sign of patrols?"

"Nothing yet," Suzee reported after a moment. "Although…there might not be. Look at those ships on the perimeter. They're in good shape, and at least a couple still have power. All the Spung would have to do is post a couple guards on each, and if any unauthorized this approached…"

"Bang," Harlan completed. "Do any of them have weapons powered up?"

"I don't think so, but I've never seen anything like some of them. I don't even know if I'd recognize a weapon, never mind be able to tell which of the active power relays is going to it."

"Well…if we've never seen them before, maybe the Spung don't know how to work them either?" Radu offered. It wasn't likely, and he knew it.

Goddard shook his head. "If they've had them for any amount of time, I think we can safely say they've figured out how all the systems work. All right, we wait for a convoy going in—if there are guards on those ships, they'll need food and leave time, and there are probably inspections and the like. Suzee, I don't want to get any closer, but can you boost the scanners enough to identify which ships have any power at all. We'll circle at this range."

"Commander, there's no way we're going to be able to circle this thing today…I'm not even sure we could circle it this week!" Harlan protested. "This may have started on the eleventh planet, but it's headed out of the sector!"

"Stay to the Spung side—I'd rather not wind up in the middle of a firefight because we're in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"In the wrong ship."

He nodded at Suzee. "That too."

"Radu, pull up starcharts. Plot a course out of here as best you can. Our best bet is a hyperjump, so start plotting out coordinates now so we won't waste time. Get us out of Spung space."

"Even if it takes us into one of the enemy sectors?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend…or at least less likely to come at us shooting. I'll work with the scanners at the level we have now and try and locate the Christa."

None of them spoke as Harlan began to bring the ship around—even if the commander was the only one 'officially' scanning for their ship, even was having a hard time focusing on what she was supposed to be doing. All eyes kept straying to the scene on the main screen, hoping for a glimpse of their bird-like ship.

"Harlan, watch where you're going. Radu, we need that escape route. Suzee, work on a safe entrance if we can't sneak in behind a convoy. I know it's hard being this close, but we can't afford to get sloppy now. Do your jobs, and we'll find them. Clear?"

Harlan nodded. "Clear."

"Yes, Commander."

"Yes, sir." Radu forced himself to concentrate on the numbers in front of him, trying to find the fastest route out of Spung territory. Really, the only way to go was out through Kalrabi space, and hope the commander was right about them not immediately opening fire. They could cut back across the empire in a longer hyperjump, but the Spung would know where they were going and might be able to follow. They couldn't very well follow the Christa to the Kalrabi without getting themselves killed. So…. He brought up what information he had on the sectors the Spung didn't control and did his best to plot a course through them. A lot depended on the reactions of the natives, but….

"There she is!"

The commander's voice snapped him back to the present, and he stared at the main screen. "I don't see it."

"Me either," Harlan agreed, also squinting at the image. "They're so far away…"

"I see it too!" Suzee said. "Look, there, behind the big green one!"

"Big green…? Hey, you're right! I can't tell from here, but at least she isn't in pieces!"

Radu shook his head, trying to figure out what the three of them were staring at. The ships were so small on the screen…they couldn't afford to come within Spung scanner range, but he wished he could see something. He moved up behind Harlan's shoulder, trying to follow the other boy's line of sight. Harlan moved slightly, giving him a clear view. And…that was a wing. And the nose. "Commander? Is she really okay?"

"I'm not seeing any damage from here. We won't know for sure until we can get onboard and run diagnostics, but I think we might have a good shot of escaping. Suzee, any luck on boosting the scanners?"

"Sorry, Commander, you've got everything available. And there are two ships in the area besides the Christa that still have power, so we definitely shouldn't try getting closer."

"Right. Harlan, keep circling. Suzee…forget waiting for a convoy. Find us somewhere where we can sneak in as soon as possible. If the Christa still has power, the others are probably still onboard."

So the commander had been afraid the Spung had taken the rest of the crew also, Radu thought. He supposed it was still a possibility, and if they had…well, at least they'd have their own ship back. And it could hyperjump, unlike the little scout. "I can use its position to start plotting jump coordinates," Radu offered.

"Excellent."

Harlan continued to pilot the scout around the field…there wasn't much he was actually doing, but Radu was relieved that the human was focusing on something beyond pacing and insane plans for rescues. He knew what the human could be like when he didn't have a target. While earlier time seemed to fly by, now it was dragging…he could swear the chronometer had slowed. The Christa was right there, maybe—hopefully—with the others still onboard, and they couldn't do anything more than look at her. "Could we maybe...could we contact them?"

Suzee looked up, glancing over at the communications console. "We could definitely send a signal…"

"That could be easily intercepted or traced," Goddard finished. "I'm sorry, but until we're onboard, we won't be able to find out any more information about the others."

That drew three sighs with varying levels of discontent, and from the look on his face he agreed with them, but getting captured now that they were so close…well, that wouldn't help anyone. Radu tried to go back to focusing on jump coordinates, but it was harder…he'd gotten most of what he needed worked out before they'd seen the ship, now all there was to do was plug in the exact location for the start of the jump. The computer could do that—the computer did do that, fortunately, since he wasn't sure he wanted to trust his own senses right this second.

"Commander, I think I see something!"

He turned towards the engineer. "What is it?"

"Look…there are two ships active, there and…there. I'm not sure what that one is, but that's an old Spung destroyer. It's got a sensor range that covers through here…" she gestured at the screen. "Like I said, I don't really know what the other one is, but judging by the layout of the sensors—"

"Are you sure they're even sensors?" Harlan interrupted.

"Well, no one in their right mind builds laser cannons in that configuration—the beams would intersect and they'd lose most of their effectiveness. There's nothing there that they could actually shoot a missile from, unless they're using missiles the size of a person's fist. So, logically, it stands to reason that that's where their active sensors would be located. The crossover wouldn't be an issue for a radar sweep. Anyway, if these are its sensors, the best coverage it would have would be through here." Another gesture at the screen. "Based on those two patterns, there is a corridor through here," all three of the others leaned towards the screen, trying to see whatever she was gesturing at in the darkness of space. "If we're careful, we should be able to fly the scout right down that corridor without them noticing."

"Are you certain?"

"Certain, no—for all I know the thing is telepathic and will sense our approach, and those two arrays are actually overgrown jelly dispensers. But it's the best bet I've seen so far, and I just confirmed that there are no other active ships hiding behind those two."

Goddard nodded. "Well, I've never heard of a telepathic ship, and I think we can rule out the jelly dispensers. Mr. Radu, Mr. Band, get us in there. On the silent engines. Suzee, you and I will be keeping an eye on the sensors—I want to know if they have any monitoring systems inside that mess. Radu, I assume you can get us back to the Christa once we're inside?"

"Of course, Commander." Even Harlan could probably handle that, and he managed to get lost on space stations! Three heartbeats besides his own picked up speed as Harlan began to move the little ship into the space Suzee had designated the 'safe' corridor between the two monitors, but no shots were fired. Four sighs of relief sounded as they passed both ships, and Radu passed the Christa's coordinates to Harlan's console.

"You think she'll just open the doors like she did for Elmira?" Harlan asked.

"I hope so, Mr. Band. Because if she doesn't, I'm not sure how to go about getting in."

"There she is," Radu whispered.

"Wha—Christa!" Harlan exclaimed, seeing what Radu had. "And the docking bay is already open."

"Bring her in, Mr. Band."