Chapter Seven

"Starfleet?" Spluttered Drake.

"Probably one of the Intelligence wings. Think about it, Will, how useful would a psychic intelligence agent be? What could we do if we had a few of those? Surgically alter them, send them to infiltrate the Syndicate, the Klingon Empire, the Suliban…what could we achieve?"

"Genetic engineering is illegal, and you know that."

"Sure do. And I know that there are always people who can justify breaking a nation's laws for the good of that nation. Will, our history is full of that sort of thing. Do you really believe that if Intelligence had developed the technology they would let a piddly little thing like the law get in their way? It's just a thought, of course."

The captain shook his head. "Let's hear the rest of your thoughts."

"Okay. Susan's about eight, maybe ten tops, so that means that whatever project created her began back in the pre-Fed Starfleet. Again, that makes sense. Starfleet was new, the galaxy was largely unknown to us, but we'd already encountered hostiles out there. Intelligence probably wanted a way to gather lots of intel, really quickly, using minimal agents. A few psychics like Sue would do the job."

"Logical, as Sarn would say. But why would they suddenly want her dead?"

A light began to flash on the control panel, catching Alex's attention, and she swore loudly. Drake asked urgently, "What?"

"That's telling me that we've been scanned. Give me a second, I'll find out who, although I can guess… Yup, bio-scan from the Orion cruiser. Wankers! Either they're scanning all the ships that leave the station, or they knew to check us specifically. Wankers."

More lights began to flash and Drake wished that he could read the Orion labels on the console. "What do those mean?"

"Those blue ones tell me that we're being targeted, and that pink one means we've got an incoming communication." She pressed the light and an ugly green face appeared on the communications monitor. "What the hell do you want?"

"Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded."

Alex stuck up her middle finger. "Swivel on it."

The Orion showed his broken, yellowed teeth. "Nain. For once, don't be a fool. You can't run and you can't fight. Surrender."

"Do I know you?"

"I know you, that's all that matters."

Alex smiled one of her most irksome smiles; one of the ones guaranteed to annoy whoever it was that she was smiling at. "You know of me. You don't know me. Critical difference."

The Orion looked peeved. "Cut your engines or we will destroy you."

"Give it your best shot, you bastard."

She found Drake looking at her. "Was it really a good idea to insult him?"

She shrugged. "He was going to kill us anyway. I like to swear at people."

"I know."

"Don't worry. He won't fire on us until we're clear of the station. So long as we go to warp before he shoots us, we'll be okay."

"And then?"

"Well, I imagine that half a dozen Orion Hunters will pursue us until we – or they – die. Unfortunately, Hunters are amongst the fastest ships in the galaxy, so pegging it isn't an option."

"Pegging it?"

"Pegging – rhymes with legging, doesn't it? Cockney Rhyming Slang. It means running away. Luckily for us, though, I know a bit more than some slang terms. I've got a plan. We just have to get away from Mansfield and we'll be okay."

"Good," said Drake, trusting her completely. "Go back to what you were saying about Susan. Why do you think her creators decided to have her destroyed?"

"I guess it has something to do with the Federation. When all the old military branches – the Andorian Imperial Guard, Vulcan Expeditionary Service, whatever – got incorporated into the modern Starfleet, all their secret files got added to one big pool. Somewhere in there, for anyone to see, would be data on Susan. Imagine what would happen if the other races discovered we'd been trying to breed telepaths. So, to protect the new Federation, there was a cover up. I guarantee it."

"And killing Susan is part of that cover up?"

"It's the only way to guarantee that no one ever finds out. Destroy the paper work, silence the witnesses. Reminding them of their military duty, or bribes could silence most people. I bet some were killed, though. And, of course, Susan couldn't be allowed to live. She was born telepathic, so she doesn't know how not to use her abilities. One slip of the tongue, so easily done, and it would all be out in the open. I can get why those people would have decided to kill her."

Drake was horrified. "You approve?"

"No! No. And if I ever meet them, I'll bash their brains out against the floor, and you know I'm not joking, Will. But I can understand their thinking."

Drake knew what his friend was feeling. If she was right, and he ever met the people responsible for Susan, he would want to hurt them as well. He wouldn't go so far as to kill them, but he could be sure that he would rough them up a bit before handing them over to the police.

He also knew that his friend wasn't exaggerating: if she met those people, she would murder them. She was perfectly capable of such darkness, and he knew it.

He got to his feet and moved over to the Shadow Wing's small weapons console. The ship was minimally armed, but if one of those Hunters managed to intercept them before they escaped to warp, he wanted to be able to shoot back, however ineffectually.

"Hold on," said Alex, reaching for the helm controls, "we're about to clear the shipping lanes."

A moment later, they did, and two things happened at once: the Orion cruiser opened fire, and the Shadow Wing leapt to warp. Fortunately, phase energy beams are restricted to relativistic speeds, and even travelling at just over warp one point one, the Shadow Wing was moving much too fast to be struck by them.

"Good timing," approved Drake.

"Thanks."

"Now what?"

Alex was darting her fingers over the navigation panels, inputting new coordinates into the computer. "They'll track our entry into warp and set out in pursuit, but it'll take them even longer to clear the shipping lanes than it took us, so we'll have a head start. That's good. I'm going to keep going for an hour maybe, then launch a decoy – basically a probe with a warp engine and a subspace transmitter – and have it carry along this course; with a bit of luck, they'll think it's us. Meanwhile, we come out of warp and change course."

"Where are we going?"

"No matter how fast we run and how many tricks we play, the Orions are faster. We can't reach Starfleet, so we're on our own. In that case, we have to fight, and we're going to fight on my terms."

"Do you want to fill me in a bit?"

"I know a place where we'll have all of the advantages. I call it the Graveyard. It's the remnants of a space battle that was fought thousands of years ago. It's in an empty sector of space; no one knows it's there but me. No one knows what sort of treasures there are there, or what sort of traps. That's where we'll kill the Orions."

"You mean escape?"

"I mean kill," Alex said coldly. "As long as they're alive they'll keep coming for us. Them or us, and I won't let it be us."

Drake nodded. "How far is this Graveyard?"

"About nine hours at maximum warp."

"Good. Then, in the mean time, I'll have a word with Miranda."

He started to get up, but Alex grabbed his wrist. "Don't, Will."

"We need to know the truth."

"Yeah, but…just be tactful, okay? I really think Lance doesn't know anything about this, and I think it would upset him. If you're going to make Miranda talk, get her alone. Or you could try pumping Susan for information."

He shook his head firmly. "Absolutely not. If she's telepathic as you say, I don't want her anywhere near me."

Alex couldn't help smiling at that. "She probably already knows that."

"Probably," agreed Drake. He sighed. "Even after we've finished this and got Susan back to the ship, what are we going to do with her? She's an Augment. Her very existence is against the law."

"What do you suggest? That we kill her?"

"Of course not! But there is a reason why Augments were banned. With superior abilities comes superior ego."

Alex nodded. "That's human nature, unfortunately. But don't forget, how a child is raised plays an important part in who they grow up into. Take a child and tell him he's stupid, he'll always believe it, no matter what he achieves in life. Tell a child that he's infinitely superior to everyone around him in every way, and you've got Khan Noonien Sign. With the right environment, Susan will grow up okay."

"I believe you. But what is the right environment? You know that Dr Soong tried the same thing, and you know how that turned out."

"Yeah. But he did the same thing: he told his bunch of Augments that they were better than humanity, and that regular people were scared of them. But I really think we can do well by Susan. The ship's probably the best place to bring her up."

"Because she'll be able to see the best that humanity – the Federation, even – has to offer. People working together to solve their problems, trying to build a better future."

"Actually, I was thinking we can keep an eye on her there and no one can get at her, but your idea's good, too," she smiled.

He laughed, and after that they were silent for almost an hour while the ship continued on its way. Alex produced a pack of cards and they played a couple of hands of pontoon, before their fun was cut short by an alarm ringing on Alex's control console. She looked at the bank of flashing lights and swore.

"What is it?"

"Pursuit. Shit, damn and hell, I didn't think they'd be able to track us so easily."

"What about your decoy?"

"Haven't launched it yet: we're not ready to change course. We'll have to see if they go for it. If they do, it'll buy us more time. Still, we're far enough ahead that even if they ignore the decoy, we'll still make it."

I hope.

"I thought this was a stealth ship?"

"An Orion stealth ship. They built its stealth tech, they know how to see through it."

"That's not good."

"Not a problem," Alex reassured. "We're close enough to the Graveyard that they can't catch us in time."

Drake hoped that his friend was right. He knew how fast Orion Hunters were. If those ships were on an intercept course, they might not have the nine hours Alex had said it would take to reach the Graveyard.

"You should probably warn our passengers about the Orions," Alex suggested. "And try not to upset Susan. She's gone through a lot recently."

"I'll try not to," the captain promised her. "But if she can read my mind…"

"Think happy thoughts, Will," smiled Alex. "Like I do."

"Oh please. Your thinking is often either dark or dirty."

"Makes me happy," Alex pointed out. "You've been quiet this last little while. Something on your mind?"

"As a matter of fact. Even if we reach the Graveyard you can't be sure what you need will be there. Those hulks are thousands of years old. We were lucky to find anything working."

"But we spent ages tinkering with them. We got that scout ship fully functional again, remember?"

"Ah, yes I do, now that you mention it. Remind me why we didn't ditch this craft in favour of that one. A co-axial warp ship would have been so helpful on several occasions that I can remember."

Alex bobbed her shoulders. "Yeah, but no one around here has a co-axial ship, do they? How much would we mess up the local galaxy if we introduced them to a technology they haven't even dreamed of yet?"

"So it had nothing to do with you not being able to fly it properly, then?"

Alex took her ship out of warp, launched the decoy probe, and immediately leapt back to maximum speed, now on a course for the Graveyard. With any luck the Orions hadn't noticed that quick manoeuvre, and with even more luck they would go after the probe.

Answering Kana's question, she said, "Nothing at all."

"Didn't think so. Going back to what I was saying, the Graveyard ships were things of tremendous power in their heyday, but they were all badly battered in battle, and have been decaying in space for centuries. Yes, we were able to restore some key systems on one or two of the derelicts, but we could never get any of the starships to fly again. That's why we gave up there."

"I remember. It was really frustrating."

"Yes, it was. Are you sure that those crippled hulks will be able to deal with our problem?"

"Sure. We got the point defence turrets of that cruiser working, didn't we? Those are powerful enough to swat the Hunters. If they somehow get through the flak and board us, there were working particle guns in that ship's armoury."

Kana's face lit up. "Particle guns! I can't believe I had nearly forgotten about those. Clearly, you have the better memory of the two of us."

"Well, you've got a few million years' worth of memories in that pretty head. Must be hard to keep track of them all some times."

"Yes. I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of my past." What she didn't say was that she was glad to be rid of it. What she could remember of her life before meeting Alex, particularly of those days so long ago when she had lived amongst her own kind, she was not proud of. "I blame you for that."

"Me? Why?"

"You introduced me to alcohol."

"Oh yeah." Alex laughed. "Fair enough, then. Speaking of, I'm pretty thirsty. Do you think we should stop by the mess hall?"

"Oh that would be a marvellous idea. You could gross out our guests with your belching."

Alex ignored her comment and headed for the mess hall. Somewhere behind them, the Orions were in hot pursuit and gaining ground, but there was nothing she could do about that. Warp flight was just flying very fast in a straight line, evasive manoeuvres at warp speed were an impossibility; and even if they were possible, each deviation from course would just make it take longer to reach the safety of the Graveyard. Until they dropped to impulse, either because they had reached their destination or the Orions had shot out their engines, there was no need for her presence in the cockpit.

A couple of beers would help her relax. She had a feeling that, after this was all over, she would need a couple more.