"Tumblin Round Zoalus"

[Joe Manning 0]

The twisted remains of Lucky Hand's hull were scattered across the scorched grasslands of Zoalus IV's largest continent. Smoke rose from the fragments across an area that spanned miles, blotting the sun enough to cast an eery shadow over the activities of the drones below. Hundreds of the machines had emerged from their patrol routes in the cities and from the subterranean receptacles of various science outposts. They were darting and weaving between the pieces of what had once been a Gular Consortium Privateer -- a ship design that was not wholly unfamiliar to them. A few of the drones scanned the scattered wreckage for signs of ongoing danger, but the majority were picking up pieces and dragging them back to their underground facilities.

 

Overhead there was a disturbance in the air. It was higher even than the fading peaks of the smoke plumes. It did not evade the notice of the planet's sensors, but it did evade their attention. The readings did not match the parameters of a common air current, but there was nothing to indicate danger. There was no visible evidence of the disturbance, no readings that suggested a buildup of harmful energy, and no indication of an alarming approach to the surface. The defense grid had its tightly defined parameters for identifying threats to be neutralized, and the disturbance matched none of them.

 

This was among a number of fortunate turns for the cloaked Qob and her crew, the first being that the cloak was active at all. The attack on the computer core had shut down most of the ship's systems, a byproduct of their reliance on ongoing central control. The cloaking device, however, relied on no such control; computer control was needed to switch it between its inactive state and its active state, but it could maintain either state on its own with sufficient power. That warp power generation and flow were also independent of computer control was another fortunate turn.

 

The saboteur, the treacherous Verbistul engineer Lazarus, had struck at Qob's achilles heel, her old and barely functional computer core. But targetting the computer rather than the power grid was a choice that had left Qob with the just the right systems functional for the time being. But that time was fading with Qob's orbit.

 

That Sal had managed to pull Qob out of its descent before Lazarus triggered his EMP attack was yet another fortunate turn. He had propelled Qob into orbit and kept the ship from plummeting to the Zoalus IV surface for at least a time. Without proper impulse engine control, however, escaping Zoalus IV's gravity was presently impossible. Shane was rerouting control to the secondary computer core, but given its role in disguising the cloaking device, its capabilities were limited. He'd managed to establish control of the ship's directional thrusters, giving Sal some ability to slow the ship's descent. But the orbit was still gradually decaying.

 

As was life support. The system was heavily reliant on central computer control, and there was no telling if the secondary core could provide both thruster control and livable atmosphere. Fortunately, there were only six people on the ship; what air there was would likely be capable of sustaining the crew at least until the orbit decayed entirely. But it would get cold and the air would get thin and what faculties the crew needed to get through this could very well be compromised.

 

Sitting in his chair regarding the Zoalus IV horizon on the viewscreen, Joe felt -- or thought he felt -- the start of the temperature drop. He was considering how Qob had arrived at this point. He was considering how he had missed the destructive intentions of a man who had been working at a station on his Bridge, and how there were hidden threads woven through this expedition that he still could not pinpoint. Without uncovering what the red-eyed Verbistul engineer had been up to during his time on Qob or what the motivations of the Capricorn saboteur Grotte had been, Joe could not be certain of where the blame needed to be directed. One thing he knew, and found quite interesting, was that two Verbistul engineers provided by Captain Maxwell had proven treacherous.

 

Were Captain LeMort and the Lucky Hand behind all of this?

 

Joe looked at the flight station and Nickles. "We're not gonna make it outta this without help ... "

 

Pher had not made contact in some time, though Joe's ODRI was maintaining a link with hers. There was no telling what was happening aboard Capricorn while Qob and Lucky Hand were diving into Zoalus IV's atmosphere. It was clear that Capricorn's assistance would once again be pivotal. Without their transporters, their tractor beam, or another fortunate turn, Qob would eventually be another scattering of wreckage for Zoalus IV's drones to pick at.