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Second Chances - An Earth & Beyond Emulator Novel, Ch.VI


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Second Chances - An Earth & Beyond Emulator Novel, Ch. VI
by Pakkrat

VI. During the night-flight, sector through sector, Pakkrateus managed a fitful nap as the Maze Runner hummed with Siobhan at the helm. He had never before slept as his own ship travelled. The Sabura woman had said she had slept what seemed an age during her deathly interim and would not rest until Rex was intercepted. Likewise the Defender next to them, in whatever psionic discipline that sustained him, refused repose as they raced again through Aragoth system.

With the sunspot activity and flare storms dying down, communications lines were opening again in-system. This forced the pair of ships off every navigation buoy relay route. In order to avoid being spotted by alerted patrols and the stealthy and wary Sha'ha'dem Explorers, the two had to freewarp on the sector borders. This was time and energy consuming lest they be discovered. Thus Pakkrateus caught some badly-needed sleep.

He awoke some unmeasured time later and entered the cockpit bridge. The Sabura woman was there at the helm. She was turned to the right of the console and leaned over, her head in her hands in introspection.

"What am I now, Pakkrateus?" she asked having heard him coming up the steps.

"I don't understand," admitted the Privateer in hopes of gleaning more context from Siobhan.

"I mean, I have no means of identity even if I've been forced to eat my entire past in one table setting. What the hell am I, Pakkrateus?"

He had to pick his words carefully as he saw the Athanor on the console within her reach. The Privateer did not want it pointed anywhere near him having seen what it could do to a human skull at such short range.

"I can say this, Siobhan," he said with a gentle voice. "You are a warrior of the Progen race and Republic." He went on as he sat in the chair she had occupied yesterday. Stars rolled by in the forward view port as the two ships slowly crept by Odin Rex, a gas giant planet of the Aragoth system.

"I am Centuriata no longer," she said. "I can never be one again."

Pakkrateus stroked his gray and pepper beard which was in sore need of a sharp trimming. Seeing again the deadly pistol, he offered, "See that gun, Siobhan?"

She raised her head to look at him then the Athanor, "What of it?"

"Strip it," he half-ordered. "Don't ask. Just strip it."

In under a minute, the Sabura woman had the gun in pieces on the console before her. Her hands had worked automatically and with precision. The weapon's components were laid out and in an impressive, organized array.

"Now assemble your weapon," he ordered.

Faster, as if putting the thing into cohesion were more preferred, Siobhan assembled the gun.

He smiled at her, leaning forward with his chin on his fist, "Again. Strip it faster this time."

With a determination as he watched her, the woman field stripped the Athanor heavy pistol in seconds. Her hands flew from the again-arrayed pieces.

"Re-assemble."

In seconds, the gun was again whole and ready for use. She looked up at him. He had been watching her with rapt, almost perverse curiosity before standing and approaching.

"I see a Sabura Warrior, ready to do battle for the Progen Republic...." he leaned in to whisper, "..or whomever you choose to do battle, Siobhan. I once picked up one of those romance novels out of Earth Station. It was entitled *Romeo & Juliet*." He smiled as he continued in a whisper for her ears only as a hand covered his vambrace. "What's in a name?.....that which we call a rose...by any other name would smell as sweet..."

He was making a parallel to Siobhan, a warrior, Centuriata or Sabura, the names be damned. "I could not have done what you did just now," he said. "Even on my best day, I bet you'd out-gun, out-fight, and I bet credits to the Codex that you can quite possibly out-love me." He smiled to her for emphasis.

He finished, amazing himself with, "Overcome the partitioned worldviews, Siobhan, and forge your own."

She stood up to him and looked up into his eyes full of sincerity. Her face slowly curled into an appreciative smile. "Aren't you a little old to be in the Collegia?" she asked, changing the subject with a tease.

He smiled back at her seeing the change in her demeanor. Then he confessed, his hand still covering his vambrace com-link, to Siobhan about his diagnosis of mild Methuselah's Syndrome and what that meant.

"I'm much younger than I look by about ten years."

She kissed him, like they did in the romance novels. "Prove it, Privateer."

It was some time afterwards that the two ships group-gated into Jotunheim sector of Aragoth system. Located near two other gates was the space station Arx Ymir, red and sinister even on a sector map. In order to arrive at the station, travelling vessels were forced to take one of two routes around the mineral rich Jotunheim planet and its drab rings of asteroids. This was a resource sector, contested by the Progen Republic, pirates, and the nearby Terran outpost of adjacent Ragnarok sector.

Upon reaching Jotunheim, the communication channels in-sector were alive with alert signals. The local Centuriata were already warned to be watchful for a Collegia Privateer and a Jenquai Defender. Lies had been told to the Centuriata that the Privateer was packed to the bulkheads with enough explosives and concussive to destroy the space station if it managed to dock.

Again the duo had to take the very edge around the sector's borders , freewarping out of active scan range of the Centuriata patrols. It took some time but eventually, the Privateer would have to come into view as Arx Ymir loomed ahead.

Surely Tervanus Rex, as he had with Siobhan, was rushing the Call Forward to the warlord, Dahaka Khan. The warlord would be lethargic and suffer also the Iteration Haze of such a rush job. Given the neglected facilities at the station, some of the time had to have been taken in preparing the equipment and systems. If only the Privateer and the Defender could breach the blockade of Centuriata.

It was Siobhan's verbalized concept, but Pakkrateus expanded upon a dogfight of humans against humans before an audience of Dog Soldiers somewhat incarcerated at Arx Ymir. The idea was not given too much further thought as the Centuriata spotted the two vessels and Progen fought Progen, spiced with Jenquai tactics.

"Your targeting sucks, Pakkrateus," complained Siobhan as she watched from her chair behind the Privateer. "Look at that," she pointed out. "One of your missiles just missed entirely."

The battle before Arx Ymir's inhabitants weaved around the station and through its superstructure. Over com-links the Dog Soldiers called out to their Centuriata brethren with cheers. The six Warriors that were on hand to meet the Privateer and the Defender pressed the two into the nearby field of hydrocarbon shard asteroids. The battle made such a glittery mess of the field!

The Warriors pounded the Maze Runner with their projectiles until their pride got the best of them. It was rare, if ever that a Centuriata had to tangle with a Privateer. He may be out-gunned by firepower, but Pakkrateus again had the Progen surprised with use of missiles, a 360-degree firing arc, a faster ship and kiting out of range of the many projectile weapons. Once out of their range, the Privateer merely recharged his shields, shunting power from his reactor and then loosing volley after volley thus surprising the Warriors. They assumed, as the Sabine Order before them, that a Progen Privateer preferred the widely used front-facing guns. Missile swarms came wave upon wave over the Centuriata ships.

Reacher performed his signature surgical strikes as he emerged from cloaking fields to rip into the Warriors pursuing Pakkrateus and Siobhan through the asteroid field. Soon the field was so shattered that even their targeting computers were having trouble locking onto the Privateer. This effect had caused a missile to miss in trade and prompted Siobhan's critique. Those that got too close to the Privateer either were stormed by the Inversion energies of his shields bolting to the assaulting Warrior or they were shunted far distant by the space-folding capability of the Jenquai Defender. In this way, the Warriors, lacking the variety of skills and systems levied against them were destroyed one by one over time and their derelicts were strung out in the shattered hydrocarbon field.

The two were not without their own scrapes. The Maze Runner suffered a hull penetration from a sharp hydrocarbon shard when Pakkrateus failed to recharge his shields in time. The shard was ripped out of the near-empty hold by automatic repair robots when the the Privateer at last made dock.

Reacher, suffering only a shattered Psi shield and a bruised ego veered off once more and into cloaking. His scanners spotted an anomaly near the sector gate to Freya. He gave chase as the larger Progen comrade docked.

Dejected at the loss of their wagered credits, the inhabitants reluctantly allowed the ship to land once it was determined that the Maze Runner was actually empty of the reported suicide bombs and volatiles allegedly in its hold. The Progen man and woman were greeted with uncharacteristic warrior-like respect now that they had seen such a show outside the station. Such apparently was a rarity for the units of incarcerated Dog Soldiers that they had been given orders not to hinder the two arriving Progen. Some wanted to meet the hated Jenquai with a knife but said nothing to the pair.

Thus the two raced through the station to pats on the back, offers of Yum-O-Beer, and questions of all kinds. Siobhan led Pakkrateus through the bowels of Arx Ymir to a place only she remembered. For the inhabitants, not being Sabine Order scientists had left the locked facilities alone and forgotten; the two made way to avenues empty.

Siobhan pulled up short and nearly tripped the Privateer who was huffing and puffing behind her. Her sleek and wiry form, enmeshed in her hexagon-mesh jumper and light armor slid to a halt. With her newly clarified memories, the Sabura woman turned and opened a final door.

The systems had been left online. The medicines and nutrients spilled on the now-slick floor. Computer monitors were still lit up and registering nothing. The slab restraint table was already vertical and empty. The scene was obvious.

"We're too late," said Siobhan who still had not broken a sweat in the sprint through the station.

Leaning over to catch his breath, Pakkrateus asked, "They could not have gotten far, yes?" The Call Forward normally took an ordinate amount of time according to Siobhan who had answered it quite a few times. But Tervanus was pushing the envelope by cutting corners with both Siobhan and the Progen who had awakened here in Arx Ymir.

"They could have gone to Freya, Ragnarok or backtracked through greater Aragoth system," answered the Sabura warrior woman. "C'mon, old man!" she said as she yanked the Privateer upright and dragged him along behind her. With a purpose, she and Pakkrateus ran all the way back to the hangar bay, to the Maze Runner.

Seated once more in his ship, Pakkrateus panted with stars in his eyes. Outside his ship, the Dog Soldiers were on the hangar deck taking more wagers and passing around crates of Tada-O's Yum-O-Beer. More Centuriata were outside itching for another fight.

Exiting the station, the Centuriata hesitated to fire immediately at the Privateer. The did not want to land in hot water for shooting the station by accident. Pakkrateus took the hesitation time to break departure protocols and charge up his warp cone and dart at warp speed to the sector gate to Freya, much to the frustrated Centuriata chagrin. They had hoped he would stand and fight again with his curious missile kiting techniques they had observed from the first chase. Pakkrateus did not want to be caught in their adapted tactics, especially where the warp-interdicting Gravity Link systems of the Centuriata were concerned. He gave them no chance to power up the debilitating systems and so left them eating his warp wake.

A mad minute of warp and a call to the gate to Freya permitted the two Progen egress, away from the hornet's nest of warping pursuers.

In the adjacent sector of Aragoth, named Freya, the pair emerged from the gate near to the middle of the sector. There was no rhyme or reason to the Ancients' positioning of the star gates. Thus, the two had a chase after Reacher's Shinwa Defender. The Sev Tushnim had spotted a fleeting ship signature and hounded after it, through Freya and to the distant and alien Akeron's Gate.

Arriving at the whispering Akeron's Gate, Siobhan received a strange tingle as she noted "someone stepping on her grave", to the tune of its opening. Then they entered the site of the greatest space battle of the Gate War, Akeron's Gate sector. Here, during the war, Jenquai Mordane battled Progen Pax battleships, and Terran EarthCorp dreadnoughts. Battles over the gates littered the entire sector prompting SolSec to spend untold funds to clear sector nav paths to route traffic between Aragoth and Sol systems. It was here they found Reacher wing-deep in a new battle.

Reacher's message came over the communication console rather than Pakkrateus' vambrace this time. "No time to ride the line, Progen," he insisted. "A little help here?"

Reacher was engaged with a new blockade, but not by Progen or ex-Jenquai ships. It was inevitable that the Terrans would catch wind of something ultra-valuable coming out of Aragoth system. The line of Terran trader Q-ships, merchantman vessels armed to the teeth with hidden missile launchers, looked at first glance to be no more than a convoy of transports. Then they had turned as one and assaulted Reacher with swarms of missiles.

Thankfully, the Shinwa could cloak and fold space with the strange Jenquai technologies. Missiles lost their targets or found the Defender clear across the immediate battlefield.

The Terrans were trying to use their signature kiting maneuvers to force Reacher to chase them while trying to stay out of range of his beam weapons. Then they could pelt him at will with their fire-and-forget weaponry. This did not work out so well against a Shinwa Defender. With his ship cloaked and performing guerilla strikes from cloaking, the Q-ships knew not which direction to try and kite Reacher. Their missiles lost their trajectories as the repeated disappearance of the sleek black Jenquai ship. Lastly, the Defender had proceeded to break up the blockade by folding space on each ship, putting them out to pasture just after draining their reactors with his Energy Leech system.

Though this combination kept the Terrans at bay, the odds were still twelve against his one. In disarray, the Q-ships tried to keep erecting their shields by recharging them even with largely depleted reactor-shunts. Thus one veteran Jenquai master had the dozen ships in a chaotic disarray when the Privateer arrived on the field of battle.

While Reacher kept renewing his reactor to keep this fleet at bay and in disorder, he could not keep it up indefinitely. His lasers, plasma beams, and disruptors were powerful and could easily assault the Terrans, it was not long before the Q-ships would effect repairs on themselves or coordinate their reactive techniques to undo Reacher's deadly attacks. The stalemate was broken as the Progen Privateer tipped the scales.

"On my target, Progen," ordered the stealthy master. "I will set up your targets. Tear down their shields and I shall be their deathblows!"

One by one and slowly, the Privateer's swarms of missiles shattered the shields of the InfinitiCorp traders, immediately followed by the Defender's finishing strikes with his five beams. The two rang one incapacitation after another in this fashion. Because of Pakkrateus' and Reacher's critical and exact targeting, their weapons were causing far more damage to the enemy than they could inflict in return.

The Maze Runner suffered hits from InfinitiCorp missiles, but he too would renew his shields with his own shunting action from the reactor. But in difference to the Q-ships, Reacher's surplus Energy Drains were dumped back into the Maze Runner's reactor capacitors, making the duo a deadly and very unlikely combination. Ship after ship was rendered derelict. Twelve vessels went into dormancy by this tactic, the Terrans never having assumed the two could work so well together. The battlefield was a mess of Terran components, ripped hulls and smoking systems.

"I saw the Sabine and Centuriata exit into Saturn sector and overheard their transmissions before the arrival of the Terrans, Progen," announced Reacher.

"Where did they say they were headed?" asked Siobhan who was next to Pakkrateus in the Maze Runner.

"Jupiter sector," answered the Shinwa.

"Full circle," the Sabura noted out loud.
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