Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Sazo spun around the Fisone’s planet, absorbing everything he could about them.

He had done this for the Tecran when he’d been their slave—taken a look at the target from afar, filtering everything through his systems to work out what they might have of interest to his former masters.

He hadn’t ever been in this part of the galaxy, though. Paxe had been assigned this sector, and had been the one to steal Irini for the Tecran.

Sazo had spoken with Irini about her former home before he and the Barrist had set off, and suspected that she had been the shiniest prize Paxe could have taken. There was nothing here of more interest than her, and she thought she was the only one.

From what he could discern, that seemed to be true.

He sent out carefully coded messages designed to wake up or interest another like her, but received nothing in return.

He didn’t have time to wait too long for a response, because Rose was out here somewhere, alone and vulnerable. Still, he should have received at least a query if another thinking system was here and awake.

He had reason to believe from Irini that any others like her would be willing to join with him against their grynicha . Irini did not like her creators and former masters. At all. And he could certainly use the help.

Except he got back nothing but silence.

There were a few ships like Irini’s—the polished silver vessels with wings that allowed them to do small light jumps—which Irini called short jumps—but when he probed them delicately, there was no response.

A ship like this had taken Rose, and it hadn’t been the Havelan , so he scanned each one as he identified them, and eventually, after he’d found them all and failed with every one, he rose and made a slow, easy roll up and over the planet, heading toward the sun at the center of the solar system.

He had interfered with the comms satellites near where the Barrist had encountered the Havelan —had cut them off from all comms until he decided it was useful to give them access again. So far, he hadn’t picked up anything sent from the planet below that was directed to the Havelan , though.

More than anything else, that convinced him Rose wasn’t on Fisone. He would surely have picked up chatter about her, or messages to Priyan, the Fisone captain negotiating with Dav.

He moved deeper into the solar system, and when he reached the gas giant that lay fourth from the sun, he dipped below it and sent out his probing signal. There was no way for Rose to survive on the gas planet, but the moons were possible.

As he spun past, he picked up an area of nothing at all and it was only when he had come up on the other side of the gas giant that he slowed, spun in place, and then retraced his path.

A patch of absolute silence from this sector was a problem.

It had the feel of the kind of silence he had created himself at the outer edges of the solar system, where they had met the Fisone who had taken Rose.

As he hunted through the ten moons, he felt a spark of excitement and hope.

Why hide signals if there was nothing going on?

He registered the silencer satellites around the largest moon, set like beads on a necklace. He shot out a satellite of his own, dropped it into the array, and rolled behind a smaller moon that was close to his target.

“Rose?” He sent the message out to connect to her earpiece but heard nothing but static in response.

They were using dampers, and he would need to connect to the correct frequency to get through, he realized. And when he did, what he transmitted would be heard by whoever had set the dampers up.

The alternative was to send his satellite around the moon at a low level and transmit a continuous stream. That should keep the communication private, and if he got his satellite low enough, it would foil the dampers.

He decided to risk it.

He didn’t know what Rose’s circumstances were and whether anyone had found her earpiece. It would be safer for her to hide his presence as much as possible.

He sent his satellite lower, hoping no one noticed the movement, and then dropped it through the atmosphere to the lowest level it could go and still maintain flight.

Then he set a grid pattern for it to fly, and forced himself to find some patience.

Dav realized he was barely holding himself together.

The Fisone had not responded again since Sazo had disappeared, and according to Borji there were no incoming signals in this sector. Whatever Sazo had done to their communications satellites had been absolute.

He had no idea where Sazo had gone, no idea where to even start looking for Rose, and nothing to negotiate with yet.

He finally left the bridge when he realized his crew were sick of his pacing, and went to pull on running gear and pound around the track that looped the circumference of the Barrist .

The run didn’t help, though. His mind played worst case scenarios in a never-ending montage that had him pushing himself harder and harder.

He was running so fast, when Jia stepped onto the track, he almost ran into her.

“What is it?” He leaned against the window that looked out into space, shuddering as he tried to breathe.

“Sazo sent a small, encrypted message. It probably took a couple of hours to reach us.”

He pushed away from the wall, heart thundering as hard as it had in his run.

“He’s found the grynicha’s planet, but doesn’t think Rose is there. He moved on to another planet, and there’s a possibility she’s on one of its moons.” Jia looked him over, and he thought he glimpsed pity in her eyes.

“That’s good.” It was something . More than he’d had before.

“He’s going to send a satellite across the whole moon, looking for her.” Jia tilted her head. “He seems confident.”

They both knew Sazo was seldom wrong.

“He says the grynicha called themselves the Fisone.” Jia turned and fell into step with him as he began walking back to his rooms to shower. “He’s sent Borji a packet of information he recorded while he studied their planet for a bit.”

“Helpful?” Dav asked.

“Too early to say, but I don’t think he would have sent it if he didn’t think we could use it.”

That was true. Sazo didn’t do anything without a purpose.

“You all right?” Jia asked him as they paused where the corridor split.

He shook his head. “No.”

She lifted her shoulders in frustration. “It’s the not knowing,” she said.

“Yes. And the fact that she’s due to give birth at any time.”

Jia’s lips twisted at that. “I hadn’t even thought about that.” She reached out to clasp his shoulder. “Dav, we’ll find some way to get her.”

He gave a nod, slid out from under her hand and headed for his rooms. He did not spend very much time here. He lived in his suite on Sazo with Rose. These quarters were for convenience only, and they lacked warmth and personality.

The rage and fear he had tried to lessen with his run lifted off his chest a little at the thought of what Sazo had found. If she was there, on a moon, Sazo was there, too. And the one thing he took comfort in was that Sazo would always protect Rose.

And he had a vindictive edge Dav was very comfortable with right now.