Running Away From the Cops Speed

LOCATION: Still Somewhere Between Venus and Earth

The radar screamed.

Phoenix slammed the stick forward. The Mighty Sparrow bucked, its new fuel burning clean and pushing the G-force meter into the black.

-Hang on, Phoenix yelled.

Behind him, in the co-pilot seat, Himalaya Market groaned. He was still strapped in, pale and shivering, the Black Box resting on his lap like a pet. Bit was wedged between the seats, clutching his helmet.

On the scope, the red blip of the Forager was closing the distance with terrifying speed.

-He’s fast, Phoenix muttered. He’s got military drives. We’re flying a garbage truck.

-Can we fight him? Bit asked.

-Why fight when you can try to run?

A streak of white light flashed past the cockpit window. Silent. Deadly. A warning shot.

The radio crackled.

-Unidentified Scavenger, a voice boomed. This is Commander Doremus of the MTC. Power down your engines and prepare to be boarded. Thank you!

Phoenix ignored it. He tapped the comms panel.

-Hap! Reroute all auxiliary power to the rear shields.

-NEGATIVE, Hap’s voice buzzed. THIS VESSEL DOES NOT POSSESS REAR SHIELDS. SUGGESTION: DO NOT GET HIT.

-Thanks, Hap.

Phoenix looked at the Orrery. The Marley refugee fleet was a cluster of slow-moving shadows, five hundred kilometers to the "south" relative to the solar plane.

-Why are they chasing us? Market whispered. His voice was raspy. They think I’m dead.

-They know you’re alive now, Phoenix said, banking the ship hard to the left. Apparently The HAK ship called them. Thanks for bringing them our way.

-You picked up on that? Market asked.

-Biometric locks? Engine harmonics? Phoenix scoffed. You told the robots the only way to open the Box was with my ship. I’m surprised they bought it.

Market managed a weak smile. It hurts, he muttered.

Another railgun round whipped past, closer this time. It clipped the edge of the Sparrow’s solar array. The ship shuddered.

WARNING: PORT ARRAY DESTROYED.

He’s toying with us, Phoenix muttered.

He looked at the scope. Doremus was positioned between the Sparrow and the path to Venus. He was herding them back the way they came from.

-We can't outrun him, Phoenix said. And we can’t fight.

He looked at the distant cluster of the refugee fleet. The Marley was a massive, iron-ore hauler. Thick hull. High radiation signature from its unshielded reactor.

-How about hiding? Bit asked.

-There’s no asteroids, Market pointed out. Space is full of asteroids only in children’s stories.

-There’s a mountain, Phoenix said.

He punched in a new vector.

-Market, hold onto your lunch. Bit, grab a handle.

Phoenix cut the engines. He flipped the ship 180 degrees, flying backward.

-Hap, Dump the coolant!

-COOLANT DUMP INITIATED.

A cloud of super-chilled gas vented from the Sparrow’s nose. It created a temporary thermal screen.

Phoenix ignited the main thrusters again, flying toward the refugee fleet.

-You’re going back to the Marley? Market asked, alarmed. You’ll lead the wolf right to the sheep!

-He’d have taken them first if he were interested in them.

The Forager turned, its sensors locking onto the Sparrow’s thermal plume to follow in pursuit.

-Come on, come on, Phoenix whispered.

He aimed for the Marley’s engine block. The radiation coming off the old freighter was lethal to humans, but it was also blinding to sensors.

-We’re going to crash, Bit yelled, somewhat excited and somewhat frightened.

-Don’t say that, Phoenix muttered.

Phoenix fired the brake retardants at the last second. The Sparrow slid into the narrow gap between the Marley’s thruster and its hull plating.

It was a gap of maybe twenty meters.

They slammed into the magnetic field of the freighter. The radiation alarms in the cockpit went haywire.

WARNING: RADIATION SPIKE. SHIELDING CRITICAL.

-Cut the engines! Phoenix shouted

He killed the power. The cockpit went pitch black.

Silence.

Outside the viewport, the massive, glowing exhaust of the Marley filled the sky. They were drifting in its wake, hidden in the radioactive noise of the freighter.

Phoenix held his breath. He watched the passive sensor scope, powered by the emergency battery.

A bright line swept across the screen.

The Forager zoomed past them. It flew right over the Marley, its sensors searching for the Sparrow. But against the background radiation of the freighter, the tiny scavenger ship was invisible.

Doremus circled once. Twice.

Then, the Forager peeled away, banking toward the expected vector for Venus.

-He lost us, Bit whispered.

-He didn't lose us, Phoenix said, exhaling. He’s going ahead to catch up with us later.

Phoenix leaned back in his chair. His hands were shaking.

-We’re alive, Market said softly.

-For now, Phoenix said. But we’re stuck. We have to stay in the Marley’s shadow all the way to Venus. If we drift more than a kilometer out, Doremus will see us. And, I don’t know, does the MTC still want the Marley too?

-That’s two weeks of drift, Bit said.

-Pretty good Bit, yeah, about fifteen days. Fifteen days of radiation alerts and rationed water. This is why you ought to be on the Marley, kid. You can’t be a navigator if you don’t grow up.

He turned to look at Market. In the dim light of the emergency LEDs, the geometric scars on Market’s chest seemed to pulse faintly.

-So, Phoenix said. You’re an interface now. What does that mean?

Market looked down at his hands. He flexed his fingers. The movement was fluid, too perfect.

-I don’t know, he muttered almost to himself. I don’t remember getting put into suspended animation. I barely remember getting abducted by the HAK people to begin with. But it hurts, he said, tracing one of the geometric scars on his arms.

-Captain? Hap’s voice buzzed in the dark.

-What is it, Hap?

-I HAVE ANALYZED THE PROPELLANT WE STOLE FROM THE HAK VESSEL.

-Is it good stuff?

-IT IS NOT STANDARD HEETHREE. IT IS A MOLECULAR VARIANT. HIGH EFFICIENCY.

-So?

-SO, Hap paused. IF YOU MIX IT WITH THE ALGAE PASTE, IT MIGHT BE EDIBLE.

Phoenix laughed.

-Great. Rocket fuel slurp. Wake me up in a shift, Hap.

Phoenix pulled his cap over his eyes. They were ghosting toward Venus, hiding behind a wall of rust, chased by a wolf, and carrying a man who was slowly turning into a wi-fi router.

Just another Eightday on the run.