The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Forty Eight

Malachi ran through the preflight checklist as fast as he dared. He flipped on the transmit switch as he completed the last few checks.

'Don't wait for me. Go when you're ready.'

'Of course I'm going to wait for you Mal. I don't know the way out.'

'Check your navigation logs. They will have recorded the route in. Set destination for the beacon and load the route it as a waypoint list for the flight back.'

'Huh?'

'Never mind, I'm ready.'

'Me too!'

Malachi disengaged magnetic locks and applied minimum thrust. The Valkyrie lifted slowly from the surface of the Solar Forge. He retracted the stubby landing gear and throttled forward, lifting the nose of the dagger-like ship at the same time.

Behind him, Ellie was performing the same manoeuvre, although being Ellie she did it faster, smoother and cleaner. She might not know how to transfer navigation data around her ship area network, but she could fly.

Secondary systems came on line and cast their pale glow through the cockpit.

Ellie tapped her feet against the pedals and committed all the essential controls to muscle memory. She didn't mind Malachi's teasing, but flying came easily to her because she paid attention. Malachi quickly understood machines. Tila quickly understood a fight, or caused one. Ellie understood how to fly.

Ellie glanced at her scanner. It was something she would have to get used to. Her racers didn't need them, and the others she had seen worked on a flat circle. The Valkyrie scanner showed her ship as a simple white dot in the middle of a circle. The circle was presented at an angle, as if she was looking across a dinner plate. Malachi's ship showed up as a green blip in front and to the left of the centre. His blip topped a straight vertical line which connected to the plane of the circle. She looked out the cockpit up and to the left, and there he was.

Ellie pulled up and accelerated gently. Very quickly she was looking down on him. Malachi's blip moved toward her on the display and the line shortened as she climbed. At she drew level mid way through her climb the line on his blip vanished. As she continued the climb, Malachi's blip slid down a new line and sat at the bottom. It held steady as Ellie matched course and speed.

Below both their ships was a wireframe model of the Solar Forge rendered in light blue.

'We have a head start but let's not hang around,' Malachi said. 'Follow me.'

Malachi's ship rolled left and down relative to the Solar Forge. He used the refinery vessel as a guide. They had approached from the other side of the big ship when they arrived so that's where they needed to go. His navigation system concurred, and traced helpful lines for him to follow.

This was going to be easy.

Ellie followed him as they swept under the belly of the Forge and aimed for inner wall of the void within the dead fleet.

Ellie's ship chirped an alarm. Malachi's did too.

On their scanners flashing blue dots were emerging from the Solar Forge's docking bays.

'Um,' said Ellie.

'Just move,' said Malachi. 'We can outrun them.' He looked up and saw them. Maybe half a dozen small fighters had launched. He looked at his scanner, ran a finger down the controls and hit a button. The flashing blips turned into a steady, menacing red.

More blips popped into existence on the far side of the forge. Malachi wasted no time in tagging them as enemy fighters too. The Valkyrie's IFF system stored this and automatically transmitted the data to Ellie's ship.

'What just happened to my scanner?' she said as her screen filled with colour and lines.

'The ships know we're on the same side.'

'There's a lot of people not on our side,' she said doubtfully.

'So what's new?'

They powered closer to the wreckage of the fleet. For a few moments they flew free and clear through the empty bubble of space which insulated the Solar Forge from the inner boundary of the dead fleet.

'Are they going to shoot us?' she asked.

Malachi checked ranges and distances. They could still make it and once in the fleet proper they would have a chance to hide. They would be safer there than out here.

'Just stay close. Once we're back in the fleet we will be harder to hit, and once we hit open space again they won't be able to catch us.'

Bright flashes lit up the scene behind them, confirming Ellie's fears, as eager pirates tried for an early kill. Laser blasts flashed past the fleeing Valkyries and exploded against the fleet debris in front of them.

But the missed shots were still having an effect upon the fleet. The wreckage, so carefully laid out to hide the ship at the centre of the graveyard, began to move. Impacts and explosions from the missed shots had taken a kinetic toll, and the walls of the labyrinth started to change shape.

Malachi's navigation system beeped for his attention.

'Oh crap.'

'Mal?' Ellie's voice wavered over the intercom.

'I see it, El. it's gonna be tight, but we can still make it.'

'Are you sure?'

Mal's navigation had lost their way out. Their path had vanished. They could still get through, probably, but the safety promised by cover of the fleet had become a danger all its own.

Even the dead had betrayed them.

'We'll lose them in there, find our way back to the beacon and get out of here. They can't follow us without a jump drive, remember?'

'But are you sure?'

'Pretty sure!'

'But-'

'Follow me and stay close,'

'But-'

'Here we go,' said Malachi.

Laser fire lit up the night sky and they dived into the shifting maze.