Tristan (Tristan book 1) (Draft 1)

Chapter 05

"They're going to come back," the human said evenly.

Tristan nodded his agreement. "They'll wait just long enough for someone to grow confident in their escape and then do a sweep for trails"

"How are you getting around it?"

"We wait, they'll only be able to do a limited amount of sweeps before the Sayatoga is too far for them to be practical. I expect that after twelve hours they'll be out of range from the asteroid field, so we will probably see the last sweep within that last hour."

"Twelve hours." the human stated and before Tristan could reply the sensor alerted them to the presence of another ship in the area.

Tristan studied the reading. "I didn't expect them to send one this soon." The sensors registered the use of an active sensor. He watched the reading increase as the beam passed over them and then decrease.

"If they find us, can this box take them?" the human asked.

"They are using the same model of tracker ship we are in. It would come down to skill and personnel. I have the piloting skill, but they will certainly have an experienced gunner," Tristan looked at the man. "How is your gunnery skill?"

"I have better skills," was the response.

Tristan nodded and went back to studying the readout. "Then we could probably take them, but not before they could signal our presence. Regardless, that won't be needed, they haven't detected us; they would be focusing on us if they had picked up anything out of the ordinary." By watching the pattern of the sensor beams He estimated that four ships were scanning the field methodically.

Half an hour later the tracker ships left the asteroid field.

It was three hours after that another group of trackers appeared and did another grid sweep before leaving.

They spent the next hour in silence, and then the human asked. "What were you in for?"

"I was setup," Tristan answered flatly.

"So you're one of those innocent convicts."

"I'm as innocent as you are," he replied without looking up from the sensor screen.

Four hours after that another group scanned the field and left. They would be the last group to drop in; by the time they made it back to the Sayatoga would be too far to send anymore. Still, Tristan waited another three hours, watching the sensor and he was surprised when he never saw another ship leave. If he had been in their place the last group would have left a ship behind until the last possible moment in case someone knew enough about starships and trackers to know their effective range.

"We're in the clear," Tristan said for the benefit of his passenger and set about restarting the ship. The warm up sequence done he was ready to ignite the engine.

"Wait," the human said, "I saw something."

Tristan moved his finger away from the switch and looked at the sensor. "There's nothing on the sensor."

"I wasn't looking at the sensor." The human transferred his screen to the front. "I was keeping an eye on the exit." He had reoriented one of the emergency camera to point up.

"How long have you been using it?"

"Since you put us down; it runs off the emergency life support. No ship can afford to be completely blind."

Tristan nodded; at least he had known what he was doing. He hadn't seen a point in using it because the sensor could perceive much more.

The human rewound the image until something sparkled as one of the asteroid moved out of the way. "There's something there."