On the High Frontier

3. Unavoidable Business (part 5/6)

"Beacon 2971. We have a heartbeat." Fee's voice comes over whispercomms as Kimiko is moving round the pod from the lock to the side facing the freight stream. On Ryo-Ohki's display a cluster of 17 freight beacons in close formation shows at the target coordinates, and one of the beacon telltales changes from blue to green. It's on the far side of the cluster, but there's plenty of time.

They have confirmed that none of the containers in the cluster is violet, and Q-Containers are supposed to be very rare. "I'm going to work my way across the group. Move round and stand off until I'm done." With this she pushes off and floats away from the pod.

Ryo-Ohki's propulsion is pure magic. No reaction jets, no propulsive trace at all. It uses an interaction with local space-time to distort the frame of reference to create propulsion. Apparently the boost the sheath provides for things like jumping uses a weak version of the same effect. When pressed James mentions the singularity in the power core and starts using words like hybridised space-time axes and sub-dimensionality; Kimiko doesn't care, the experience of flying through the void is miraculous and exhilarating, as long as she isn't too close to large objects like the station.

She moves from one container to the next, staying close to avoid being too visible. She is about halfway to the target when Ryo-Ohki raises an alert. It has detected a significant mass nearby with some low level electronic noise. It is approaching the pods but is neither actively transmitting nor under thrust. When she looks it is a space vessel, about cruiser size. It would have been easily missed with regular sensors. There are no running lights but violet markings show up under light intensification. "VE." She sends Fee a curt warning and then cuts the whispercomms. It might be encrypted, but is too easily tracked up close in empty space. She watches as Fee gives a slight burn and the pod vanishes into the dark. The VE make no response at all, if they saw it they are more interested in the freight.

Kimiko does not have time to reach the container; the VE cruiser is going to arrive too soon. But close counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and scaping. Once she has left the VE a little present, courtesy of a recently reported low-priority vulnerability, she starts to work her way back out of the cluster. They can't know anyone is here. She has no radar return, so wrapping herself in the cloak makes it very hard for them to see her.

After almost 25 minutes of inertial navigation she finds Fee's pod waiting at the agreed abort point. She boards in silence, and after mutual grunts of greeting they sit unspeaking as Fee pilots back towards the station. Taking a roundabout route to avoid being seen coming from a vector too close to the freight corridor.

"How did they find us?" The tension tells and Fee gives voice to their mutual frustration. "It's not my imagination is it, they were definitely vectored on that cluster." The incredulity is clear in her voice.

"I'd say so. Though I'm not sure they knew we were there." Kimiko has been examining Ryo-Ohki's recordings of the VE's actions as she was escaping. "They matched course with the cluster on the far side from the station, minimum burns, and then just sat there. No obvious EVA and still no signals. I'd bet all their passives were on the freight corridor."

"Why that cluster?"

"No idea."

As they approach the station they are reacquired by VTC. The lack of awkward questions reassures them there are no alerts. As they close on the station their comms come live, and Fee receives an urgent message, apparently about a friend's recent surgery. "It's from the client. If I read this right then their contact at L5 was picked up by Void Enforcement." She stops and thinks for a moment. "If they got the details of the transfer then the timing works for them retasking a patrol cruiser to ride shotgun. If they don't know when it's being collected I guess they'll ride it in to watch."