Dean Dean finds himself adrift in deep space after an unfortunate collision on the fold space highway. A chance discovery of an unusual artifact brings him to the attention of the feared Dedan Empire.
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The monitor chirped as Grath highlighted the freighter for a potential weak spot. They were a good enough distance behind, but if they could see them, perhaps Dedan repairs and improvements could have made the Vorpal visible too.
"What do you think MAI?"
[Well from here it looks like they have certainly upgraded the ships offensive output.]
"Yes, but do you think they can see us?"
[If you saw a hunter class ship tailing you with overall positional advantage you would leave quickly.]
MAI was cut off by some further rumbling from the Miceand robots.
"There would be no reason to leave. We are far superior to any captain and crew from a hunter vessel."
"There must be an off switch somewhere." Grath leaned back in the chair, thinking of his next move. "Okay, so we have to wait for him to leave the ship or get him in a more vulnerable spot."
[Yes].
"Affirmative." MAI and the robots responded immediately.
[I have actually managed to intercept the end of a message from the freighter. Would you like to hear it?]
"Does it say where they're going?"
[Erm, well, yes. You're not going to like it]
"Phate. Kualanandar?" Grath's hand crunched into the metal of his chair arm.
"Set your coordinates for the port. You have your safe passage."
"Well, that was easy now wasn't it?"
"Easy for you perhaps. It'll come out of your fee. Good hunting."
"So, he is working for the Dedan. What for?" Grath tapped on his screen. "He must be Folding soon. We need to get a lock. It is the only way we can follow. MAI help."
They weren't close enough to get a full trailing lock on the freighter, but Grath managed to get a hit on any Fold parameters within a certain distance of the Vorpal-3. Nothing else was on the scanners, so the only Fold would be from their target.
As the freighter started to Fold, its thrusters slowed to almost a complete stop in mere seconds and then fired fully. The effect jolted the ship forward until it warped through space seeming to sink into a black hole.
The beep from the control panel was obnoxiously loud, but Grath knew it was needed. It was highlighting that they had the Fold locked on.
"We need the lock for ten seconds." This was the time it took to gather and follow the coordinates. By this time Garth knew the freighter was definitely gone from the Fold path and he just hoped they didn't Fold again. The control panel beeped four more times until MAI confirmed they had the lock.
