“All hands! Initiating conspace transition!” Stacy announced.

  It wasn’t usual practice on the Elegance to announce every transition between conventional space and hyperspace, but this wasn’t a normal transition. There was a good possibility that we’d be met on the other side by either the rogue corporates of The Untangled Knot Co. or the transformed crew of a long range survey ship named The Journeyman. Neither one was likely to welcome us for a good cuppa and home baked biscuits.

  “Stacy, put the main bridge sensor feed up on my hub please.” I asked out loud, sitting at my usual monitoring station in engineering, fully kitted out in my EVA gear.

  “Sepaq, feed is connected.” She responded. “Sensor feed shows no sign of the Untangled Knot fleet so far.”

  “Journeyman is on scans,” I heard my sister say, “no alteration from Terran Commonwealth configurations showing. Engines are cold, reactor readings are minimal, lifesigns… I’m picking up multiple sensor ghosts Commander.”

  “Keep an eye on those ghosts. Notify me if you detect any movement.”

  “Sepaq, Commander.”

  “Commander,” Gertrude announced over the comms, “Void’s Cutlass is prepped and green for launch, awaiting clearance.”

  “You are clear to launch. Let’s dispose of that nest of vermin before the other troublemakers arrive. With luck we can get to the secondary target before they even show.”

  “Roger that, Commander.” came the reply, “Cutlass launching.”

  The sensor feed showed the Cutlass carefully maneuvering out of the hangar bay, executing a delicate pirouette, and beginning to approach the Journeyman.

  Glancing at the holomonitor in front of me, I checked the remote readings on the kaon lance system and saw that everything appeared good on the remote feed, but decided to get a first hand reading. “System Check on the lance. Cutlass, how are the power readings and diagnostics on your end?”

  “Spannerman, Lance systems still showing full greens. Power draw within spec, targeting system operating as expected.” Came Giselle's report. During our furious scramble to get the lance built and installed, I’d managed to get familiar enough with their verbal nuances to tell them apart. “Looking forward to seeing what this baby can do!”

  “The opportunity is coming shortly, Cutlass.” Jo cut in. “Let’s not delay on this. We have the visual confirmation from the Bathurst boarding team, and the proper authority to dispose of this navigation hazard. You are clear to go weapons free when you’ve reached optimal range.”

  “Roger that Elegance. Arming the lance now. One hundred kilometers until optimal position.”

  As I watched the distance to target reading for the Cutlass quickly spool down, I started to get an odd sensation crawling up the fine hairs on the back of my neck. Something felt wrong, but I couldn’t place what it was. None of the engineering monitors were showing anything out of whack, and all the telemetry from the Cutlass looked spot on as well. Yet with every moment, the feeling grew, until I called out for Boudya to double check all the telemetry.

  “All systems are green, Chief.” she reported, “even that weird fluctuation in shield emitter three that was plaguing us seems to have settled down after the burn in cycle. Are you seeing something I’m not?”

  “No, but something feels off,” I told her, then opened the channel to the bridge. “Commander, just a gut feeling here, but there is something about to…”

  But I never got to finish, as the alerts started going off, and Stacy announced “Contact at bearing 248 mark 25! Ships broadcasting no transponder codes, but match description of the Untaggled Knot fleet.”

  “They must have some sort of new stealth tunnel drive!” I said, then let out a few choice curses. “So much for getting this done before they got here.”

  “Report, are they in firing range for either us or the Cutlass?” Jo barked out, and I knew she was bringing up her tactical sphere in order to analyse targets. “Ms Aacen, open a broadcast channel set to Commonwealth emergency protocols, and loop the admiral in via the Ansible please.”

  “Sepaq, Commander, channel open.”

  “This is the Elegance of Light,” Jo barked out in a voice cold enough to make me shiver, “We are here at the behest of Commonwealth Fleet Command. The C.S.S. Journeyman is under strict quarantine, any attempt to approach it will result in you being fired upon. You are also in violation of Spacefarers Convention Code regarding your lack of transponder identification. You are to back your group off to one hundred million kilometers, and transmit your identification codes immediately.

  “Any deviation from these instructions will result in your being declared pirates and hostilities will commence.”

  “No response, Commander.”

  “Commander,” the smooth, controlled voice of the Admiral cut in. “I’m sure you’ve already matched those ships to the reports we got of Benson Fisch’s private fleet. I really want to be able to take him alive, but barring that, I’ll settle for his corpse. Don’t let him get a hold of that virus, but please try and recover his remains. I will take all responsibility on this matter. Open fire at your leisure.”

  “I’ll do what I can, Admiral.” Jo responded, “And we’ll continue to link our sensor readings through the channel. Feel free to record it for your government.”

  “Appreciated.”

  That was when the sensors lit up with an enormous explosion from the direction of the Journeyman. The virtual white noise of it blinded the sensors for a moment, and my gut twisted with the worry that something had gone horribly wrong with the kaon lance, but then I heard the unmistakable yell of near orgasmic joy from Giselle over the comms. “OH YEAH BABY! NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL THE ROD OF GOD!”

  The sensors cleared a moment after that, showing Void’s Cutlass racing back towards us like its tail was on fire - which wouldn’t be too far from the truth. The aftmost tips of the long range fighter’s sickle like “wings” looked scorched. The sight had me looking intently at the telemetry coming from the Cutlass’s damage control computer.

  It looked like they caught the outside edge of Journeyman’s reactor losing containment. Their shields were down about ten percent, and enough radiation had managed to penetrate them to do that scorching, but otherwise they were okay.

  Well, other than the lance systems showing a seventeen percent higher power draw at the moment of firing, and there seemed to be signs of an intermittent connection loss on the fire control. “Cutlass - be aware the Rod of God might have some refractory issues.” I informed them over encrypted comms, “Be prepared for it to malfunction at the worst time.”

  “Thanks for the heads up Spannerman.”

  Across a million kilometers of cold void, the unidentified fleet of ships shifted, and dozens of small, short range fighter craft spilled out into space and began racing towards Cutlass’ position. At the same time, the bulk of the fleet began moving off on a course that set Jessica to calling out, “Commander, the fleet has shifted course and is heading towards Bathurst’s position. Cutlass has a total of thirty-two class-B fighters closing on their position.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Attempting electronic warfare measures.” I heard Stacy announce, “Maybe I can buy us some time.”

  “We’ve activated our stealth systems and will attempt to swing around them.” Gertrude reported with frightening calm, “maybe a sneak attack or two will whittle their numbers down.”

  As I watched Cutlass’s sensor profile fade to almost nothing, and her own transponder go dark - who would these chucklefucks complain to anyway?- Jo ordered an aggressive strafing run on the massive wave of fighters. They’d clearly been ordered to harass and destroy Cutlass if possible as a primary goal, since they didn’t seem to be paying attention to us at all. That changed when Jo let loose that first salvo.

  I’d only seen the Elegance’s weapons systems at work twice before; Once when we fought off the mysterious ship in the Yantari system, and then again during the EVA to rescue Giselle. Neither instance really showcased the capabilities of giobhioni weapons technology, even in a ship as small as Elegance.

  But the barrage that was let loose on those fighters as we swept by was eye opening. The beams cutting through the black void almost seemed like a solid scythe blade, honed to monofilament sharpness, slicing through stalks of dry wheat. A dozen fighters erupted in brief blossoms of fire as their engine cores lost containment, or their explosive ammunition detonated.

  Moments later, Cutlass dropped stealth and opened up with its own weapons: coilguns, beams, and even a handful of guided missiles (the standard type of course). Her heavier build provided a larger armament than the Class-Bs. Several of the smaller, more nimble fighters managed to avoid getting cut by Cutlass’s edge, but at least a half dozen were either crippled or destroyed outright.

  We were still outnumbered in this fight, but certainly not outgunned.

  The bulk of the remaining fighters continued to hairy Void’s Cutlass, with only a handful veering off to focus on us. The fact that they were concentrating on the smaller target confused me, until Elegance shook slightly, and the damage control readouts in my HUD lit up. Something heavier than what those class-B fighters could carry had just struck the shields on the aft port quarter.

  “Shield holding at ninety-seven percent Commander,” I reported, bringing up the status of the shield systems in that section. “No equipment damage.”

  While we’d done our strafing run, it seemed like a pair of corvettes that had been left behind by the fleet had begun opening fire on us with their long range coils. “Going to have to leave you to take care of those insects, Cutlass.” Jo sent out over the comms, “We seem to have some frisky snoglantir pups that want to prove their ferociousness. Call out if you need us.”

  “Roger Razormaw,” Gertrude shot back, using a callsign for Jo I hadn’t heard before, “Don’t worry about us, we’ve still got some tricks up our sleeve.”

  The ship’s engines thrummed up to a higher pitch as Toftri sent us into a roll to put us on course to intercept the corvettes. He was pushing them hard, and at this rate, the inertia we’d built up would mean we’d need a fair amount of time to brake and come back around. I knew he was rated as a crack helmsman, but I really hoped he knew what he was doing.

  As our velocity edged up into a frightening level, I felt the pulse through the deck saying our beam weapons had fired again, then the distinctive ka-tunk of a torpedo launching from the ship’s undercarriage.

  I’d never actually seen one of the giobhioni torpedoes in action, though I’d read their spec sheet. I found myself keeping half an eye on the tactical feed as I worked to make sure the engines stayed within safety limits, and the shields held up against the repeated hits from railgun rounds. So far so good, the beautiful girl was holding up to the battering like a trooper, I just hoped that continued.

  Suddenly the frenetic thrumming from the engines cut to idle, leaving only the sound of maneuvering thrusters firing in all directions. Readings from the inertia dampeners were showing that Toftri was on the verge of maxing out what they could take care of. If he got any wilder in his evasive maneuvers, we were going to start feeling it.

  Just to be on the safe side, I strapped into the crash chair and called out to Boudya to do the same.

  The timing couldn’t have been any better, as something managed to finally anticipate all the dodging and weaving and connect with a brutally explosive impact. The whole ship slid sideways in space from the concussion of it, and sparks flew from several power conduits. “Starboard emitter 6 is out!” Boudya called, “emitter 7 is damaged by holding!”

  “Rerouting power to adjacent modules to compensate. Damnit, and one of those fighters just managed to drain aft emitter 3. We’re going to need to take care of them somehow.”

  “Commander,” Stacy put in, “permission to deploy Ms Mend’nasa’s little project?”

  Wait…what?

  “Approved!” Jo barked, “Let that keep the strenxiks busy for a while.”

  I glanced over a Boudya, who just grinned at me as I heard a series of quieter ta-chunks come from the belly of the ship, then saw several new beacons on the tactical readout spread out behind us. Almost immediately, one of the class-bs blossomed into what the fighter pilots in holovids referred to as “void flowers”

  “Did you build a bunch of combat drones when I wasn’t looking?”

  “Technically, they’re droids, because Stacy is controlling them. That’s what the geeks say, right? A drone is remotely piloted by a fleshbag, or operated by a preprogrammed instruction set; A droid is controlled by a legitimate AI.”

  “Hot damn, this is fun Sweet Blue!” Stacy laughed maniacally through the engineering intercom. “Gonna need some bigger ones!”

  “Oh, what have you done Boudya?”

  “Levelled the playing field!” she shot back, and pointed at the tactical screen.

  Stacy had made quick work of the fighters that had been harassing us, and as the last one spun out of control into the void, sent her droids off towards Void’s Cutlass to assist.

  In the meantime, one of the corvettes had lost one of its engine nacelles, and sensors were picking up a radiation leak; Its reactor core must have taken enough of a hit to crack. There were escape pods starting to pop out of it in every direction as its commander chose to evacuate non-essential crew.

  The torpedo was still in flight as the second corvette attempted to outmaneuver it.

  “Any luck with the electronic warfare Stacy?” I heard Jo ask. “It would be a great time to cut their engines so they can’t keep dodging the torpedo.”

  “Just one more…I’m in.” She reported, “Their encryption was quite good, better even than Fleet security encryption. Hey Admiral! You need to work on that! Fuck! They’ve got life support, weapons and propulsion airgapped in some way. No outside access.”

  Just as she said that, I felt the strain on our inertia dampeners as the Elegance was thrown into a one-eighty pitch-roll under Toftri’s command, just as we blew past the wounded corvette. Jophixa was unleashing her fury on it as we flashed by it, our main armaments remaining in optimum firing solutions due to Toftri’s piloting.

  While we continued to be battered by their own desperate fire - a fact that had Boudya and me frantically rerouting power and trying to keep the shields covering our most vulnerable angles - the rapid barrage Jo let loose was too much for it.

  “She’s about to…” Jesse called out, but Toftri had already sent us into yet another pitch-roll, gunning the engines again to make sure we were carried out of the blast radius when the corvette’s reactor went critical.

  “Oh, the inertia dampeners are gonna need an overhaul after that.” Boudya grumbled.

  “Onetwothree, not it!” I said rapidly, and laughed, hands still flying over the damage control board. “While the other ‘vette is still dodging the torpedo, let's get those burned out shield modules swapped to secondaries. “

  “Sepaq, boss!”

  “Hah!” Stacy crowed a minute later, as Toftri was attempting to alter our course to pursue the other corvette. “Don’t bother Be’tsar! It’ll be just one more…”

  On the tactical screen, we saw the corvette attempt a wicked maneuver, trying to copy Toftri’s pitch roll and bring its main guns to bear on the torpedo. Or at least, that’s what I thought it was trying to do? Instead, the ship just continued to spin on both axes with no attempt to correct. Ten seconds later, the torpedo caught up to it, the massive payload it carried, along with the stresses the hull must have been under due to its wild rotation, turned it into a fireball.

  “What in Lawkapt’s teeth happened there?” Jo demanded.

  “Boudya gave me the idea!” Stacy announced. “I couldn’t get at their propulsion, life support or fire control, but I could disable their inertia dampeners! When their helmsman tried to pull off that pitch-roll like Be’tsar did, the gravitational forces knocked them all unconscious. Unfortunately, they’ll never wake up.”

  “Good thinking,” Jo said with a certain amount of pride, “Status on Cutlass?”

  “With the help of Boudya’s other idea,” Stacy reported, “they’ve only got three, scratch that, one Class-B fighter to take care of. Whoops, and it's bugging out. Guess they don’t like the odds of surviving.”

  “You can be my wingwoman any day Stacy!” Came Giselle’s voice over the comms, “We’ve taken some significant damage, but we’re not out of the fight. G1 is working on getting some of the damage repaired while we catch up. Are we going after the rest of the fleet?”

  “Damn right. Lets just hope we aren’t taking them on all by ourselves.”

  “We should be arriving shortly,” The admiral’s voice informed us. “We’ll be coming out of hyperspace near the Journeyman’s coordinates, but we’ll do our best to catch up. Do your best to delay them. Oh, and…Stacy was it? I’d love to hear how you know how hard Fleet encryption protocols are to break.”

  “Those are classified secrets Admiral,” Jo put in, “We’ll talk about the prospect of reading you in after we take care of this dust up.”

  “Looking forward to it Commander. See you in a bit.”

  The Salvager’s Plague

  Ko-Fi or on