Timothy Zahn - Outbound Flight

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2024-12-20 0 0 827.05KB 420 页 5.9玖币
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Outbound Flight
By
TIMOTHY ZAHN
1
The light freighter Bargain Hunter moved through
space, silver-gray against the blackness, the light of the distant
stars reflecting from its hull. Its running lights were muted, its
navigational beacons quiet, its viewports for the most part as
dark as the space around it.
Its drive gunning for all it was worth.
“Hang on!” Dubrak Qennto barked over the straining
roar of the engines. “Here he comes again!”
Clenching his teeth firmly together to keep them from
chattering, Jorj Car’das got a grip on his seat’s armrest with one
hand as he finished punching coordinates into the nav computer
with the other. Just in time; the Bargain Hunter jinked hard to
the left as a pair of brilliant green blaster bolts burned past the
bridge canopy. “Car’das?” Qennto called. “Snap it up, kid.”
“I’m snapping, I’m snapping,” Car’das called back,
resisting the urge to point out that the outmoded nav equipment
was Qennto’s property, not his. As was the lack of diplomacy and
common sense that had gotten them into this mess in the first
place. “Can’t we just talk to them?”
“Terrific idea,” Qennto bit out. “Be sure to compliment
Progga on his fairness and sound business sense. That always
works on Hutts.”
The last word was punctuated by another cluster of
blaster shots, this group closer than the last. “Rak, the engines
can’t hold this speed forever,” Maris Ferasi warned from the
copilot’s seat, her dark hair flashing with green highlights every
time a shot went past.
“Doesn’t have to be forever,” Qennto said with a grunt.
“Just till we have some numbers. Car’das?”
On Car’das’s board a light winked on. “Ready,” he
called, punching the numbers over to the pilot’s station. “It’s not
a very long jump, though—”
He was cut off by a screech from somewhere aft, and
the flashing blaster bolts were replaced by flashing starlines as
the Bargain Hunter shot into hyperspace.
Car’das took a deep breath, let it out silently. “This is
not what I signed up for,” he muttered to himself Barely six
standard months after signing on with Qennto and Maris, this
was already the second time they’d had to run for their lives from
someone.
And this time it was a Hutt they’d frizzled. Qennto, he
thought darkly, had a genuine talent for picking his fights.
“You okay, Jorj?”
Car’das looked up, blinking away a drop of sweat that
had somehow found its way into his eve. Maris was swiveled
around in her chair, looking back at him with concern. “I’m
fine,” he said, wincing at the quavering in his voice.
“Of course he is,” Qennto assured Maris as he also
turned around to look at their junior crewer. “Those shots never
even got close.”
Car’das braced himself. “You know, Qennto, it may not
be my place to say this—”
“It isn’t; and don’t,” Qennto said gruffly, turning back
to his board.
“Progga the Hutt is not the sort of person you want
mad at you,” Car’das said anyway. “I mean, first there was that
Rodian—”
“A word about shipboard etiquette, kid,” Qennto cut
in, turning just far enough to send a single eye’s worth of glower
at Car’das. “You don’t argue with your captain. Not ever. Not
unless you want this to be your first and last tour with us.”
“I’d settle for it not being the last tour of my life,”
Car’das muttered.
“What was that?”
Car’das grimaced. “Nothing.”
“Don’t let Progga worry you,” Maris soothed. “He has a
rotten temper, but he’ll cool off ”
“Before or after he racks the three of us and takes all
the furs?” Car’das countered, eyeing the hyperdrive readings
uneasily. That mauvine nullifier instability was definitely getting
worse.
“Oh, Progga wouldn’t have racked us,” Qennto scoffed.
“He’d have left that to Drixo when we had to tell her he’d
snatched her cargo. You do have that next jump ready, right?”
“Working on it,” Car’das said, checking the computer.
“But the hyperdrive—”
“Heads up,” Qennto interrupted. “We’re coming out.”
The starlines collapsed back into stars, and Car’das
keyed for a full sensor scan.
And jerked as a salvo of blaster shots sizzled past the
canopy.
Qennto barked a short expletive. “What the frizz?”
“He followed us,” Maris said, sounding stunned.
“And he’s got the range,” Qennto snarled as he threw
the Bargain Hunter into another series of stomach-twisting
evasive maneuvers. “Car’das, get us out of here!”
“Trying,” Car’das called back, fighting to read the
computer displays as they bounced and wobbled in front of his
eyes. There was no way it was going to calculate the next jump
before even Qennto’s luck ran out and the fuming Hutt back
there finally connected.
But if Car’das couldn’t find a place for them to go,
maybe he could find all the places for them not to go…
The sky directly ahead was full of stars, but there was
plenty of empty black between them. Picking the biggest of the
gaps, he punched the vector into the computer. “Try this one,” he
called, keying it to Qennto.
“What do you mean try?” Maris asked.
The freighter rocked as a pair of shots caught it
squarely on the aft deflector. “Never mind,” Qennto said before
Car’das could answer. He punched the board, and once again the
star-lines lanced out and faded into the blotchy hyperspace sky.
Maris exhaled in a huff. “That was too close.”
“Okay, so maybe he is mad at us,” Qennto conceded.
“Now. Like Maris said, kid, what do you mean, try this one?”
“I didn’t have time to calculate a proper jump,”
Car’das explained. “So I just aimed us into an empty spot with
no stars.”
Qennto swiveled around. “You mean an empty spot
with no visible stars?” he asked ominously. “An empty spot with
no collapsed stars, or pre-star dark masses, or something hidden
behind dust clouds? That kind of empty spot?” He waved a hand
toward the canopy. “And out toward the Unknown Regions on
top of it?”
“We don’t have enough data in that direction for him
to have done a proper calculation anyway,” Maris said, coming
unexpectedly to Car’das’s defense.
“That’s not the point,” Qennto insisted.
“No, the point is that he got us away from Progga,”
Maris said. “I think that deserves at least a thank-you.”
Qennto rolled his eyes. “Thank you,” he said. “Such
thanks to be rescinded if and when we run through a star you
didn’t see, of course.”
“I think it’s more likely the hyperdrive will blow up
first,” Car’das warned. “Remember that nullifier problem I told
you about? I think it’s getting—”
He was cut off by a wailing sound from beneath them,
and with a lurch the Bargain Hunter leapt forward like a giffa
on a scent.
“Running hot!” Qennto shouted, spinning back to his
board. “Maris, shut ‘er down!”
“Trying,” Maris called back over the wailing as her
fingers danced across her board. “Control lines are
looping—can’t get a signal through.”
With a curse, Qennto popped his straps and heaved his
bulk out of his seat. He sprinted down the narrow aisle, his elbow
barely missing the back of Car’das’s head as he passed. Poking
uselessly at his own controls, Car’das popped his own strap
release and started to follow.
“Car’das, get up here,” Maris called, gesturing him
forward.
“He might need me,” Car’das said as he nevertheless
reversed direction and headed forward.
“Sit,” she ordered, nodding sideways at Qennto’s
vacated pilot’s seat. “Help me watch the tracker—if we veer off
this vector before Rak figures out how to pull the plug, I need to
know about it.”
“But Qennto—”
“Word of advice, friend,” she interrupted, her eyes still
on her displays. “This is Rak’s ship. If there are any tricky repairs
to be made, he’s the one who’ll make them.”
“Even if I happen to know more about a particular
system than he does?”
“Especially if you happen to know more about it than
he does,” she said drily. “But in this case, you don’t. Trust me.”
“Fine,” Car’das said with a sigh. “Such trust to be
rescinded if and when we blow up, of course.”
“You’re learning,” she said approvingly. “Now run a
systems check on the scanners and see if the instability’s bled
over into them. Then do the same for the nav computer. Once we
get through this, I want to make sure we can find our way home
again.”
It took Qennto over four hours to find a way to shut
down the runaway hyperdrive without slagging it. During that
time Car’das offered his help three times, and Maris offered hers
twice. All the offers were summarily refused.
Sometime during the first hour, as near as Car’das
could figure from the readings tumbling across the displays, they
left the relatively well-known territory of the Outer Rim, passing
into a shallow section of the far less well-known territory known
as Wild Space. Sometime early in the fourth hour, they left even
that behind and crossed the hazy line into the Unknown Regions.
At which point, where they were or what exactly they
were flying into was anyone’s guess.
But at last the wailing faded away, and a few minutes
later the hyperspace sky collapsed into starlines and then into
stars. “Maris?” Qennto’s voice called from the comm panel.
“We’re out,” she confirmed. “Running a location check
now.”
“I’ll be right there,” Qennto said.
“Wherever we are, we’re a long way from home,”
Car’das murmured, gazing out at a small but brilliant globular
star cluster in the distance. “I’ve never seen anything like that
from any of the Outer Rim worlds I’ve been to.”
“Me, neither,” Maris agreed soberly. “Hopefully, the
computer can sort it out.”
The computer was still sifting data when Qennto
reappeared on the bridge. Car’das had made sure to be back at
his own station by then. “Nice cluster,” the big man commented
as he dropped into his seat. “Any systems nearby?”
“Closest one’s about a quarter light-year directly
ahead,” Maris said, pointing.
Qennto grunted and punched at his board. “Let’s see if
we can make it,” he said. “Backup hyperdrive should still have
enough juice for a jump that short.”
“Can’t we work on the ship just as well out here?”
Car’das asked.
“I don’t like interstellar space,” Qennto said
distractedly as he set up the jump. “It’s dark and cold and lonely.
Besides, that system up there might have a nice planet or two.”
“Which means a possible source of supplies, in case we
end up staying longer than we expect,” Maris explained.
“Or a possible place to settle down away from the noise
and fluster of the Republic for a while,” Qennto added.
Car’das felt his throat tighten. “You don’t mean—?”
“No, he doesn’t,” Maris assured him. “Rak always talks
about getting away from it all whenever he’s in trouble with
someone.”
“He must talk that way a lot,” Car’das muttered.
“What was that?” Qennto asked.
“Nothing.”
“Didn’t think so. Here we go.” There was a screech,
more genteel than the sound from the Bargain Hunter‘s main
hyper-drive, and the stars stretched out into starlines.
Silently, Car’das counted off the seconds to himself,
fully expecting the backup hyperdrive to crash at any time. But it
didn’t, and after a few tense minutes the starlines collapsed
again to reveal a small yellow sun directly ahead.
“There we go,” Qennto said approvingly. “All the
comforts of home. You figure out yet where we are, Maris?”
“Computer’s still working on it,” Maris said. “But it
looks like we’re about two hundred fifty light-years into
Unknown Space.” She lifted her eyebrows at him. “I’m thinking
we’re going to have a stack of late-delivery penalties when we
finally get to Comra.”
“Oh, you worry too much,” Qennto chided. “It won’t
take more than a day or two to fix the hyperdrive. If we push it a
little, we shouldn’t be more than a week overdue.”
Car’das suppressed a grimace. Pushing the hyperdrive,
if he recalled correctly, was what had wrecked the thing to begin
with.
There was a twitter from the comm. “We’re being
hailed,” he reported, frowning as he keyed it on. He threw a look
at the visual displays, searching for their unknown caller and felt
his whole body go rigid. “Qennto!” he snapped. “It’s—”
He was cut off by a deep rumbling chuckle from the
comm. “So, Dubrak Qennto,” an all-too-familiar voice rumbled
in Huttese. “You think to escape me so easily?”
“You call that easy?” Qennto muttered as he keyed his
transmitter. “Oh, hi, Progga,” he said. “Look, like I told you
before, I can’t let you have these furs. I’ve already contracted
with Drixo—”
“Ignore the furs,” Progga cut in. “Show me your hidden
treasure hoard.”
Qennto frowned at Maris. “My what?”
“Do not play the fool,” Progga warned, his voice going
an octave deeper. “I know your sort. You do not simply run from
something, but run rather to something else. This is the lone star
system along this vector; and behold, you are here. What could
you have run to but a secret base and treasure hoard?”
Qennto muted the transmitter. “Car’das, where is he?”
“A hundred kilometers off the starboard bow,” Car’das
told him, his hands shaking as he ran a full scan on the distant
Hutt ship. “And he’s coming up fast.”
“Maris?”
“Whatever you did to shut down the hyperdrive, you
did a great job,” she said tightly. “It’s completely locked. We’ve
still got the backup, but if we try to run and he tracks us again—”
“And he will,” Qennto growled. Taking a deep breath,
he switched the transmitter back on. “It wasn’t like that,
Progga,” he said soothingly. “We were just trying to—”
“Enough!” the Hutt bellowed. “Lead me to this base.
Now.”
“There isn’t any base,” Qennto insisted. “This is the
Unknown Regions. Why would I set up a base out here?”
A light flashed on Car’das’s proximity sensor.
“Incoming!” he snapped, his eyes darting back and forth among
the displays as he searched for the source of the attack.
“Where?” Qennto snapped back.
Car’das had it now, coming from directly beneath the
Bargain Hunter: a long, dark missile arrowing straight toward
them. “There,” he said, pointing a finger straight down as he
stared at the display.
It was only then that his brain caught up with the fact
that this wasn’t the vector a missile would take from the
approaching Hutt ship. He was opening his mouth to point that
out when the missile burst open, its nose ejecting a wad of some
kind of material. The wad began to expand as it cleared the
shards of its container, opening like a fast-blooming flower into a
filmy wall stretching over a kilometer across.
“Power off!” Qennto snapped, lunging across his board
to the row of master power switches. “Hurry!”
“What is it?” Car’das asked, grabbing for his board’s
own set of cutoffs.
“A Connor net, or something like it,” Qennto gritted
out.
“What, that size?” Car’das asked in disbelief.
“Just do it,” Qennto snarled. Status lights were
winking red and going out now as the three of them raced
against the incoming net.
The net won. Car’das had made it through barely
two-thirds of his switches when the rippling edges came into
sight around the sides of the hull. They folded themselves
inward, curling around toward the bridge.
“Close your eyes,” Maris warned.
Car’das squeezed his eyes shut. Even through the lids
he saw a hint of the brilliant flash as the net dumped its
high-voltage current into and through the ship, sending a brief
coronal tingling across his skin.
And when he carefully opened his eyes again, every
light that had still been glowing across the bridge had gone dark.
The Bargain Hunter was dead.
Through the canopy came a flicker of light from the
摘要：

OutboundFlightByTIMOTHYZAHN1           ThelightfreighterBargainHuntermovedthroughspace,silver-grayagainsttheblackness,thelightofthedistantstarsreflectingfromitshull.Itsrunninglightsweremuted,itsnavigationalbeaconsquiet,itsviewportsforthemostpartasdarkasthespacearoundit.           Itsdrivegunningfora...

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