Chapter 182: Chapter 182

"So we all had a bit of a scare earlier today," Sarah announced, and from her expression and tone of voice I could tell she was about say something shocking.

Whatever it was couldn't have been that bad though, since my girlfriend appeared to be in a good mood. But it was just as clear she was going to drag this story out for maximum effect. It was working too, my ears drooped while my tail twitched anxiously.

Sure enough the cute blonde engineer elaborated, "And by 'we' I mean, all of us on board the Demeter, along with half the population of Ganvis Station, almost everyone in the Deveron-8 government, and probably half the population of the entire world for that matter."

After a suitably dramatic pause she continued, "Which is probably the correct reaction, when a brand-new Callisto-class Imperium Cruiser drops out of jump right on your proverbial doorstep."

"Except she wasn't bearing a Navy registration," Sarah added after another little pause. "Instead of the ISS Whatever, our unexpected visitor identified herself as the VDS Tullrohane."

She continued to drag out the news one bite at a time, "And yes, that's VDS as in Vysalis Defence Ship. And apparently Tullrohane is the name of the royal family's private estate, which contains the palace where a certain princess would be living if she ever opted to visit her adoptive homeworld."

By that point I was ready to reach through the screen and strangle my girlfriend. Or at least tell her to just hurry up and get to the point, rather than leave me in suspense. Unfortunately this was just a recording. She was still with the Demeter back at Ganvis Station, and I was stuck on the Artemis with my sister for another day and a half.

Nyssa was up in the cockpit for another shift on the sensors, but she'd pinged me over the intercom and woken me from a sound sleep to let me know I'd received an FTL from the Demeter. The message was tagged as personal, which is why I was watching it alone in my cabin instead of up in the cockpit with my little sister.

"Anyways once this huge shiny new cruiser pulled up into low orbit it launched a couple landing craft along with a squadron of fighters for close air support," Sarah continued her story. "And of course they were all heading straight for Ganvis."

She was grinning as she described the scene, "According to Jenny there were six light fighters, four heavy fighters, and two troop carriers. Not quite enough for an invasion, but more than enough to get Mayor Wheeler's britches in a serious knot."

"The ships came down together in tight formation. Then when they got closer the fighters broke off and went into an air-cover pattern over the settlement. The troop ships set down a few dozen meters from the Demeter, then opened up their big loading doors..." Sarah's voice trailed off for yet another dramatic pause.

She was still smiling though, as she finally got to the point. "And out comes a full honour guard in the fanciest dress uniforms you've ever seen, Amanda. You think Navy whites are excessive? They've got nothing on Vysalis-4's royal guard. Anyways along with the honour guard there were some officers and nobility, led by none other than Lady Gwen Magniveen. And she was all done up in a fancy outfit as well. She even had a shiny sword hanging from her waist!"

"So by that point we're kind of calmed down about the cruiser," Sarah explained, "We knew the Imperium hadn't sent a warship to stir up trouble. But all of us on the Demeter had a new worry. We thought they'd come to haul Rebecca back home with them." The most update n0vels are published on NoveI~Fire.net

My tail was down beneath my chair while my ears folded back as I nodded. I mumbled to myself, "Please don't tell me that's what they're doing. Come on Sarah, get to the point already!"

Almost as if the recording could hear me my girlfriend gave an exaggerated smile, "Fortunately that's not the case at all. Like Gwen said way back when, they'd never dream of kidnapping a member of the royal family. That's basically treason. On the other hand, that doesn't mean they don't have other tricks and schemes up their fancy silk sleeves."

"What?!" I demanded at the screen. "I swear I'm going to smack you next time I see you Sarah! Get to the point already!"

Sure enough she must have known how frustrated I'd be by then, because she finally gave in. "Ok I know you're probably on the edge of your seat by now, so I'll quit stalling. Remember how Gwen said Rebecca could only be crowned as queen on Vysalis-4? Well technically, embassies are considered to be an extension of their home world's territory. And in fact that goes for officially flagged vessels too. Remember how the Imperium Navy considers all Navy ships to be part of the Imperium, regardless where in the galaxy they are?"

"That's right," Sarah nodded. "The VDS Tullrohane isn't just a Vysalis ship, she's actually their royal flagship. According to Gwen there's even a temporary throne room on board! And all that means the Tullrohane qualifies as Vysalis-4 territory."

Her smile finally faded as she delivered the final part of her message with an anti-climactic sigh, "So the bottom line is, they're hoping to do the coronation in the next few days. And needless to say, we'd all like you to be here. Rebecca especially. I don't think she can go through with this without her emotional support floof by her side."

"On the plus side though," Sarah added with a weak grin, "Her Highness' fleet in exile now includes a brand-new fully armed and fully crewed state of the art cruiser."

My girlfriend gave the camera a sad look at that point, "We all miss you, cutie. Rebecca and I miss you a lot. I hope you and Nyssa are getting on ok out there. I guess you haven't had any luck finding Jenny's old ship, or we'd have heard from you by now. I know it hasn't been twenty days yet, but it's time to head back here. Please shoot us an FTL to let us know you've received this message, and give us an ETA on when we can expect you."

"See you soon Amanda," she said after blowing me a kiss. "Sarah out."

The screen went dark a moment later, while I slumped back into my chair with a sigh.

I couldn't help worrying about the fact Sarah was alone in that recording. It left me wondering where Rebecca was, if she was still with the Demeter or if she'd been taken onto the cruiser and put in whatever special royal quarters they had on board for her.

And either way, not seeing her or hearing from her left me wondering and worrying about her state of mind. The whole point of downtime on Deveron-8 was so she could relax and rest. Having a huge Imperium warship turn up looking for her was only going to make the situation worse.

Finally I also had to worry about Nyssa. I'd already promised we'd go to Rolandan-2 for some shore leave, and I knew she was looking forward to that. Now I had to tell her those plans were cancelled and we had to head directly back to the Demeter instead.

With another long sigh I finally got to my feet, then hesitated a moment. All I had on was a nightshirt, and I probably should have got properly dressed before heading up to the cockpit. Then again, I doubted my sister would care what I was wearing, especially after I broke the news to her about our change of plans. So with my ears and tail all drooping I continued barefoot out of my cabin.

"Amanda!" Nyssa exclaimed as I moved into the Artemis' cockpit.

I slipped into the co-pilot's seat as I replied, "We need to talk about -"

"I found it!" she cut me off. She pointed at the sensor screen in front of me and added, "Check it out!"

That's when I finally realized she looked and sounded excited. She had a wide smile on her face, and her eyes were sparkling with enthusiasm. Not only that, she was in the pilot seat with her hands on the flight controls, instead of being in the co-pilot seat monitoring the sensors.

"What?" I blinked, then looked at the sensor readout.

Nyssa nodded, "Yeah! It was just after that FTL came in for you. I didn't want to bother you, so I've already changed course. We should rendezvous with the signal in another minute or so."

"How are your girlfriends doing anyways?" she added.

I ignored her question as I frowned at the sensors, "This is an energy reading. We're looking for a four hundred year old shipwreck, there shouldn't be any energy readings."

My sister shrugged, "I know, that's why it's super weak. It's probably just some stray emergency power or something. Like no wonder it wouldn't show up until we were almost ontop of it. Nobody more than a light-hour away would have any hope of even noticing it. Good thing the Artemis has these beefed-up sensors."

My hands moved over the controls as I engaged the sensors' recording function, then I ran the received energy patterns through some analysis software. At the same time I shook my head, "Four hundred years Nyssa. No emergency backup power is going to last that long."

"Shit," I added as the analysis completed. "Another reason energy signals can be weak is if they're being masked or shielded. Turn us around Nyssa! Now!"

She started to protest, "But -"

"Right now!" I cut her off.

At the same time I reached out and hit an emergency button on the FTL panel. That encoded the Artemis' current location, then transmitted it as a data packet on an encrypted frequency. It was a precaution, and if this turned out to be a false alarm I could always send an all-clear afterwards. In the meantime I knew Jenny would pick up the signal, so the Demeter would know where we were and that we were potentially facing some trouble.

Then I glanced at my sister again and half-shouted, "That's an order Nyssa! Go!"

"Fine, I'm going already!" Nyssa retorted grumpily. Unfortunately it was too late.

A half second after she initiated a course change our sensors were blinded when those faint energy readings surged to full power. And a moment after that both my sister and I were knocked from our seats when the ship bucked hard. At the same time there was an explosion of sparks from the helm controls as something shorted out, followed by a warning tone from the engineering compartment at the aft end of the ship.

Neither of us were strapped in, and we both ended up with some bumps and bruises as we hit the ceiling then the floor. Luckily neither of us were badly hurt, and we both scrambled to our feet then back into our seats. And as soon as we were in position, both of us made sure to buckle up the safety harnesses.

"What happened? What was that?!" my little sister yelped as she engaged the automatic damage controls to take care of any ongoing short circuits and extinguish anything burning under the consoles.

My eyes were back on the sensor readouts again, and as soon as I saw the clear readings my heart rate doubled while my blood ran cold.

"We're caught in a tractor beam," I gulped, "And it's pulling us in."

The beam was coming from an installation built into the heart of a mid-sized asteroid. It was a rough ovoid shape, about thirteen-hundred meters long by eight hundred meters in diameter. Going by the indicated mass I estimated it was probably more than half hollowed out, to make room for whatever kind of facility was in there.

My first thought was somehow Dr. Kelsonian escaped and set up a new lab out here in the heart of the Gorath asteroid field. Or if not her, then maybe I missed one of her relatives back on Ecclestone's World, and they were continuing Ayala's work in secret out here.

For a second or two I was convinced my sister and I had just wandered into a trap those people laid, and now they were going to get their revenge. I had a brief vision of Kelsonian herself taking her anger out on Nyssa, before using me in some lab experiments to figure out how my ears and tail worked.

Fortunately I quickly reminded myself none of that was possible. Ayala Kelsonian was dead, along with the rest of her family.

And the data I was seeing on my sensor readout told me this installation wasn't built in the year since that awful woman died in the Demeter's cargo hold. It definitely wasn't thrown together in the ninety or so days since I wiped her family's estate off the face of Ecclestone's World either.

No, this thing looked old. Really old. The asteroid itself was covered in numerous pits and craters, while the exposed man-made parts were coated in dust and had their share of old combat scars. The sensors identified a pair of docking bay doors, both currently sealed. There was also a single docking gantry, where a larger ship was currently moored.

That caught my attention. It was a destroyer-sized warship, but there were no power signals coming from it, and no signs of life either. In fact I quickly realized the craft was a derelict, it had been ripped open at some point by battle damage. The next surprise came as I realized that beyond the combat damage the ship had been partially disassembled, like someone was stripping it for salvage.

I refocused the sensors on the asteroid installation, since that's where the tractor beam was coming from, and where we were being dragged. I initiated a higher-resolution scan and immediately picked up a number of smaller energy signals hovering around the outside of the asteroid and the derelict ship. Those turned out to be mid-sized drones, each about two meters across. It only took me a few more seconds to realize they were slowly carving up the warship's hull, converting the old vessel into scrap metal.

Next my scans confirmed what I'd been dreading. In addition to the tractor beam, the asteroid was also outfitted with a battery of weapons. Mostly a mix of beam and pulsed laser turrets, but there was also something that looked like a large-bore launcher, that I took to be some kind of heavy-duty rail gun. The weapons were all currently sealed behind armour-plated hatches, but with the Artemis unable to manoeuvre we were a sitting duck if they decided to open fire.

Finally I tried to scan the interior of the installation, but just as some data started coming in our sensors were finally jammed, along with the FTL comm frequencies. So apart from that one emergency location message, we weren't going to be calling for help any time soon.

"Who are they?" my sister asked nervously. "What do they want with us?"

My ears drooped and my tail ended up down beneath my chair as I slowly shook my head, "I don't know yet Nyssa. All I can say for sure is our day just got a lot more exciting."

From the frightened look she gave me it was clear she remembered what I told her about that word.

"Don't worry sis," I tried to act brave again for her. "I'll do my best to keep us both safe. I promise."