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The Quest
By Susan Kearney A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
Copyright © 2006 Hair Express, Inc.
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-765-35449-7
Chapter One
"Captain, we aren't alone."
Angel Taylor peered at the Raven's viewscreen and frowned. Another starship had just exited hyperspace, heading straight toward the Vogan ship Angel was after. Apparently, the Raven wasn't the only scavenger ship on a salvage foray. "Raise engine speed ten percent."
"We're already redlining," Petroy, her first officer, informed her, but just as she knew he would, he increased their speed. The Raven's engines vibrated up from engineering, pulsed through the deck of the bridge beneath Angel's feet, reverberated through her bones.
Ignoring the assorted rattles and moans of her equipment, Angel gritted her teeth and peered at the viewport where a panorama of stars served as a backdrop for the asteroid belt that had trapped the abandoned ship she intended to salvage. "Just once, I wish the information we purchased could be both accurate and confidential."
Despite the competition, she had to secure the Vogan ship first. Losing the salvage to a rival wasn't an option. Due to lack of funds, her ship's safety inspection was five months overdue. In fact, the Raven's engines needed a complete overhaul, and if Angel failed to procure the derelict ship, she faced thehumiliation of being grounded-a fate she'd avoided for the last eight years, ever since she'd won the Raven in a gambling joint back on Earth.
When she'd first acquired the Raven, it hadn't been safe to fly out of orbit, but Angel had patched the holes in the hull and reprogrammed the computer systems herself. She'd lucked out on her first run, finding and securing the salvage rights to a wrecked Venus-to-Earth transport ship, which she'd sold back to the mining company that had built her, earning enough profit to take on a crew and enough fuel to leave the solar system. Since then, Angel had never looked back, roaming the galaxy in search of abandoned space vessels in hopes of one day finding the mother lode, a haul so rich she could afford to buy a ship that wasn't older than Petroy. Meanwhile, she enjoyed the hunt. The freedom of space and being her own boss suited her-even when her ship's system was falling apart around her.
Leaning eagerly over the computer vidscreen, Angel increased the magnification. The abandoned ship ahead tumbled like a glinting piece of quartz among lumps of coal. She wasn't the mother lode, but was still a prize all right, rotating end-over-end in space, her once shiny hull now pitted and partially charred at the stem. The bow appeared undamaged and perfect for salvage. Angel could scrap the hull for metal and the tonnage alone would keep the Raven in fuel for several months. If she was lucky, the hulk would still possess its old engine intact, and there would be electronics in the bow section that might bring enough to pay her small crew their back wages too.
But her competition surged forward across the starscape in a streaming ribbon of light, making a beeline for her prize. Space laws were clear, albeit not always obeyed in the vast reaches between civilized worlds where enforcement tended to be sketchy. Yet, according to Federation law, the first salvage operator who attached their clutch beam to the hull possessed retrieval rights.
"Turn on recorders to verify the clutch and grab." Angel was too experienced to risk arriving first on the scene, only to later lose a court battle.
"Recorders activated."
The Raven had to secure the other ship-or Angel and her crew might end up dirtside slinging hash to keep their bellies full. If only she could have afforded to purchase those new hyperdrive engines she'd seen on Starbase Ten. But due to her perennial lack of funds, she'd had to settle for a retrofitting instead of a complete overhaul.
"They still have the edge, Captain." Petroy spoke crisply. "At current speed, they'll beat us to the Vogan ship."
"No, they won't. Inject the booster fuel into the engines."
Petroy's squat body shuddered and his sturdy shoulders shrugged. "Captain-"
"You want to spend the next year dirtside?"
"Better to live on a planet than blast ourselves into the ever after."
"That's where we disagree." She'd spent the first twenty years of life on Earth and had had enough of their perfect society to last a lifetime. Angel's father had abandoned her mother before she'd been born, and her mother had been too sick to work, leaving them at the mercy of her mother's family. She'd learned early that charity from her aunts and uncles came attached with strings, like obeying every societal rule. Not only had the necessity of depending on others depleted her mother's self esteem, it had sapped her will to live. After her death, Angel felt as though she couldn't breathe on Earth without violating some ordinance or other. Stars, she couldn't even listen to the music she liked without some botcop knocking on her door and handing her a ticket for violation of noise control.
"I'd prefer to live another five hundred years," Petroy spoke dryly.
She ignored his sarcasm. During her childhood on Earth, Angel had learned that money could be made from what she'd found tossed in the garbage. Over the years she'd retrieved books, restored furniture, and repaired a bicycle. Broken toys often needed just a bit of glue to fix and those she couldn't sell, she'd donated to a nearby orphanage-the scary facility where her relatives had threatened to send her if she'd caused trouble. As much as she'd hated obeying rules and depending on the charity of family, she'd seen firsthand that life in the orphanage was to be avoided. Space salvage had been a natural extension of her childhood scavenging, and now her fingers danced over the console to check on the condition of a volatile mixture of fuel she'd found on a dead space station last year and had saved for an emergency. "The booster fuel should get us there first."
"But its chemical formula has destabilized. Will we still be in one piece after you-"
She didn't have time to argue. With a quick flick of her hand, she coded in the sequence that would open a valve to mix the dangerous propellant with their normal fuel.
"Captain, I must protest."
"Sorry, Petroy." She spoke cheerfully, thoroughly enjoying the race. "If you don't want to stay, eject in the shuttle pod and I'll pick you up on the return."
Petroy showed all his teeth, the Juvanian attempt at a smile. "I wouldn't miss the ride, Captain. I only felt it my duty to-"
With the booster fuel in her tanks, the Raven burst forward like a junkie with a fix, her renewed energy increasing their speed to a level that would have flattened Angel if she hadn't been wearing her suit. Every Federation citizen wore a suit, made by machinery left by an ancient race called the Perceptive Ones. Directed by psi power, the suit protected her from high acceleration, filtered her air, clothed her, bathed her, took care of all her wastes, and translated the many different Federation languages. Her suit allowed her to move, in short bursts, at the speed of thought and could induce a state of null grav.
When the Raven accelerated, Angel automatically used her psi to adjust her suit. The soles of her boots locked onto the deck. She also strengthened the shielding against the tremendous g-forces.
The Raven's hull rumbled in protest. The deck plating arched below her feet until she feared it might buckle. The viewports moaned and vibrated.
She held her breath and clenched the console. "We're gaining on them."
"Preparing to engage clutch beam." Petroy laughed a high-pitched sound that had once grated on her nerves but now she'd learned to enjoy. Petroy was an acquired taste-he usually appeared all staid and severe, but at heart he loved taking risks, although he'd never admit it.
She tensed. "On my mark."
It was going to be close. But in her heart, she knew this salvage was hers. The abandoned ship was calling to her like a first lover bent on a reunion.
Timing would be critical. If she waited too long to activate the beam, the delay could cost her the prize and the other ship would beat them to it. But if she deployed too soon, the beam would disperse, lose power, and fail to grab the spinning hull.
Her computer could calculate the particle density of the asteroid belt, the ship's speed, and the vectors, but no computer could estimate her competitor's accuracy without knowing the individual captain, the make and model of the other starship, or how much risk they were willing to take to capture the hulk themselves. Angel used her instincts, instincts that had won her the Raven with a pair of fours when she sensed her opponent across the card table was bluffing, instincts that had told her to help a stowaway Terran singer instead of turning her over to the men hunting her during her last run, instincts that told her that the Vogan ship was meant to be hers.
"Captain?" Petroy prodded.
"Not yet. The Vogan ship is heavy. She's spinning. And we're still at the outermost reach of the clutch beam."
"The other ship just deployed their beam. They locked on target."
Angel bit back a curse. Her competitor's beam flashed across space like skimmer headlights in a foggy storm. But just like in fog that dimmed, distance scattered the clutch beam's power. The derelict ship kept tumbling.
"Stay ready. They don't have her locked in, yet."
Angel held her breath, searching for signs the spin was slowing. But like an out-of-control top, the hulk kept tumbling. "They're losing her."
"Now?"
"Wait." Her competitor would have to recharge their beam, which would buy the Raven extra time. And at their speed, every extra second narrowed the distance by thousands of miles. "Load the beam."
"Beam loaded."
"Lock on target."
"Locked."
"Steady. Steady. Now."
Their clutch beam shined through space, a bright beacon of good timing and skill. The Raven's force field captured the spinning ship and slowed the wild rotations.
"Got her. She's locked and latched."
As her competition jumped into hyperspace and departed, leaving the prize to Angel, satisfaction flowed through her like sweet frelle, the rare spice manufactured on only one world in the galaxy. And now she looked forward to her favorite part of her work, boarding her prize to see exactly what she'd taken.
"You should wait to make sure our competition has truly left for good before venturing out of the Raven."
"Keep watch, in case they return." Petroy's warning had come over the com system as she'd headed to the shuttle bay, but she could hear the excitement in his tone and knew he'd trade places with her in a heartbeat if given the chance. As captain, she sometimes allowed him the first right of inspection. But this time, she wanted to go herself. The tight race had fired her imagination, and the urge to board her prize was so strong that her blood hummed with excitement. She climbed into the shuttle and ignited her engine, shooting away from the Raven, pleased to see the Vogan ship caught in their clutch beam like a macro fly in a Debubian spider web.
Her second team, Frie and Leval, still slept, but would awaken soon and take over for her and Petroy on the next shift. But first she intended to take an inventory of their catch. Angel loved the adventure of space. She adored not knowing what waited around the next bend, or on the next planet. As a child at her mother's sickbed, she'd read many books about space and had always dreamed of escape. Life on the Raven suited her.
"How's she looking?" Petroy pretended to be worried, but his tone of impatience told her he was as eager to hear good news as she was to give it.
"Good. The metal alone should keep the Raven flying for a few more months." Even better, when Angel hauled the salvaged ship into Dakmar, a moon orbiting a gaseous planet with no life forms, she doubted the former owners would quibble over ownership and she would be able to sell it immediately. Back in the Central Federation, she'd have to fill out endless computer forms and wait for the authorities to track down the original owners to ensure she hadn't attacked the ship just to gain salvage rights. But Dakmar existed in a less-traveled region of the Federation, where the laws encouraged free enterprise. The strongest and the fittest and the smartest ran Dakmar-an efficient system that would allow Angel to turn a tidy profit without a long wait for authentication of salvage rights. She might eventually earn more on a Federation world, but the downtime would erode the extra profit.
"And?" he prodded.
She flew a slow perimeter check. "From the char marks, it looks as if an explosion took out the stem. Perhaps they lost shielding and collided with an asteroid."
"What's wrong?" Petroy asked, perhaps sensing her tone wasn't as jubilant as he'd expected. Or perhaps he just knew how to read her better than she wanted to acknowledge.
Although the evidence showed the disaster had occurred a long time ago and likely the ship had been tumbling for years, she still hoped the Vogans had escaped unharmed. The ship had obviously been abandoned, yet the hair on her arms prickled, as if in warning of danger.
"Any sign of our competition?" she asked.
"None. But it's possible a small ship could be hiding from our sensors behind some of the local asteroids."
"Are sensors picking up any contaminants on board?"
"She's as clean as a hyperdrive engine."
"Re-check."
"Nothing. There's not so much as a nano enzyme clinging to the food processors. Why?"
She tried to shrug away the tightness between her shoulder blades. "I don't know. But I feel ..."
"Go on."
"... As if something's waiting for me in there."
"Then don't go in."
She appreciated his concern, but they both knew she wouldn't turn back now. And luckily she was the captain and no one could order her to turn back. Even though adrenaline had kicked in and she could taste sweet success, she remained wary. "I'm armed. And the sensors are well calibrated."
"Machines can make mistakes."
"My instincts might be wrong," she countered.
"And when was the last time you were wrong?"
"Point taken." Angel was rarely incorrect about recognizing trouble, except when it came in the form of the opposite sex. Twice married, twice divorced, of late, she'd kept her relationships short, her expectations confined to sating her physical appetites. She now looked for men who fit her lifestyle, those who wanted no more than good company for a short time and who didn't mind when she left without a backward glance.
Angel flew under the belly, taking extra care to look for any details that appeared out of place. Giant mawing holes in the hull and ports gaped where the crew had popped safety pods to abandon ship, a sign they'd safely escaped. Most damage had probably occurred after they'd left when tiny asteroids had collided with the hull.
While inspecting every exterior inch, she tried to calm her racing pulse. Her instincts were extraordinary. She had a knack for finding trouble, of being in the exact right place at the right time-where things happened. If she'd been into sports, she would have been the star player, the one who always seemed to be around the ball during a critical play. If she'd been in the military, she would have been the general on the front, in the exact location where the enemy attacked. And as a scavenger, her success rate was phenomenal, considering the equipment she had to work with.
However, when her scalp prickled and anticipation rolled in her gut, when her fingers itched on her blaster trigger for no damn reason that she could discern-like right now-she'd learned to be extra careful. Angel had even read up on the phenomena. Supposedly, her subconscious picked up signals her brain couldn't interpret-tiny signals that her conscious mind didn't see or hear or notice, but ones that could still broadcast loud and clear to her subconscious.
"Talk to me." Petroy's voice pulled her from her thoughts.
"I'm taking the flitter through a blast hole in the fuselage." She came through the damaged hull in a cloud of dust. Her exterior landing lights revealed an empty dock and she set down with no problems.
"I've landed and the shuttle bay is full of wreckage."
She'd expected no less. Still, she couldn't keep the disappointment from her tone. It would have been wonderful to find a stash of cargo, starfire gemstones from Kenderon IV or ice crystals from Ellas Prime or even a case of Zenonite brandy. But the bay had either been picked clean a long time ago or the Vogan ship had flown empty.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Quest by Susan Kearney Copyright © 2006 by Hair Express, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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