The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(71)

There was a long silence. Then, “Understood, Lord Marce. With that said, I officially surrender the Princess to you. You are in command now.”

Marce nodded, then realized that Ponsood would not be able to see that over an audio connection. “Thank you, Captain. My associate Mr. Chenevert will be discussing with you soon all the details of transferring yourselves over to the Auvergne. Be ready.”

“I will. The sooner, the better.”

“Understood.” Marce nodded to Chenevert. “You can handle that?”

“I’m already talking to Captain Ponsood about it.”

Marce was momentarily confused about this until he remembered that Chenevert was a virtual being. He supposed a virtual being could make as many versions of himself as he wanted. He nodded his understanding.

“Is there anything specific we want brought over from the Princess?” Chenevert asked. “Aside from the crew, of which I am informed there are seven.”

“Small crew,” Sherrill said.

“Ours is smaller.”

“I want as many of their ship’s records as possible,” Marce said. “Plus any evidence Ponsood has for contracting with the Wus.”

“I’m guessing this was a cash enterprise,” Gamis said.

“It probably was, but I still want as much evidence as I can get.”

“We need as much food as they can bring over,” Gamis said to Chenevert. “Everything they have. I’m already sick of protein bars.”

“Is there any way we can salvage that ship?” Marce said. “The Dalasyslans could probably scavenge everything from that.”

“Captain Ponsood tells me the Princess has a small shuttle, which they will use to transport themselves and food over,” Chenevert said. “Depending how much time we take bringing things over, and whether it’s remotely pilotable, I can probably use it to nudge the Princess out of the path of the Flow shoal. Note it will likely damage both the shuttle and the Princess.”

“Better than nothing.”

“Quite literally in this case,” Chenevert agreed. “If after that time the shuttle is not too damaged, then I will see if I can program it to push the Princess along to the Dalasyslans. Then they can salvage both ships.”

“I want to leave them the Bransid shuttle as well,” Marce said. “No place for it here anyway. I don’t want to leave it parked over Dalasysla Prime.”

“We have to go back and get Seve and Lyton,” Sherrill said. “We can’t leave them here.”

“I can program our shuttle to fly itself to the Dalasyslans’ ship,” Hanton said. “Then pick up Seve and Lyton and the data from the Bransid, and back through the shoal to Hub.”

“If the Wus knew where the Bransid was, then they know there’s a possibility of it coming back,” Sherrill said. “The Bransid could have fought off the Princess.”

“So you think they’ll have someone waiting for us on the other end of the shoal,” Marce said.

“I would,” Sherrill said. “If I were them.”

“We’re not going to be in the Bransid,” Gamis said.

“No, but we’ll be coming through the Flow shoal from Dalasysla,” Sherrill said. “If I were them I’d be blasting anything that came through that, including the Princess. The fewer witnesses the better.”

Marce thought about that and turned to Chenevert. “Ask Captain Ponsood if he has any message drones.”

“He does,” Chenevert said a moment later. “He says they intended to send one after the Bransid was destroyed but forgot because they were too busy trying to get the ship to the Flow shoal and then fighting us off.”

“Tell him to send one confirming my death and the destruction of the Bransid, and then say they are going to stay behind for a month to salvage the habitats. Give a specific date they plan to leave this space.” Marce looked over to Sherrill. “If the Wus are planning to have someone blast them, they’ll reschedule to match dates.”

“Sneaky,” Sherrill said.

“I don’t want to be blasted to bits.” He turned back to Chenevert. “And you finally will be able to visit the Interdependency.”

“Wait, you want to use this ship to get back to the Interdependency?” Chenevert said. “I can’t do that. I don’t have a field generator.”

They all stared at him.

“I’m joking,” he said. “Of course I do.”

“We need to talk about your sense of humor,” Marce said, after he and every other human in the room recovered from their mini heart attacks. “Being semi-dead seems to have affected it.”

“It was like this before,” Chenevert said. “How do you think I died?”





BOOK THREE





Chapter

19

Shortly before the Bransid was scheduled to return into Interdependency space, an appointment the ship and its crew would miss, two more Flow streams disappeared.

The first was the stream from Marlowe to Kealakekua. The two systems were lightly inhabited and direct trade between them was infrequent, as their direct Flow stream took a month to traverse, while routing through Beylagan cut ten days off the journey. It was a reminder that the time in a Flow stream was not necessarily related to the distance between two systems, and also the intricacies of the Flow were something only a few people understood to any extent.