Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis (ebook reader ink .TXT) 📕

They were a bunch of thugs, he said, running around the verse and terrorizing people with impunity. He didn’t understand what they wanted with The Yunan anyway. There were no people left on board (so nobody to kidnap), there were no goods (so no booty), and the ship itself was fairly old and outdated, meaning there was nothing to salvage.

“Maybe they wanted to stop The Yunan from becoming part of the station,” I offered, speaking over my shoulder as I plotted new attack sequences to launch once the time came.

“I’ve been trying to hail them to ask, but they don’t seem interested in talking,” Uncle E said. He tried to get a better angle on the Tracer ship, but it was too elusive. “She doesn’t look like much, but she’s got some moves.”

My uncle tried to bank and the Stang stammered a bit and lost speed.

“What the hell was that?” Uncle E asked Gary.

“Hmmmm…seems that maybe there was more structural damage than I thought. We have a slight issue with the navigational bearings that may give you trouble when you try to–”

“May?!?” Uncle E shouted. He muttered something under his breath about Gary, then turned to me. “Don’t even think about it.”

I stopped unbuckling my belt and leaned back in the seat. He knew I was going to try and get below decks to fix it.

“There’s no time for that,” he said. “Jiang, let’s hear more about that EMP.”

I’ve heard my uncle say that the outcome of most ship-to-ship combat scenarios often rests on one move. Maybe it’s a decision you make. Or a mistake the other ship commits. But with so much lethal technology available to both sides, all it takes is one second to be either victorious or reduced to atoms.

My uncle was gambling our lives on The Yunan’s ability to take out the enemy ship for us. After drawing the Tracer vessel away from The Yunan with a pair of missiles (both of which they neutralized with countermeasures), my uncle killed the engines. I was waiting in the cargo bay in my space suit. The door opened and I pushed an improvised explosive device into the vacuum. Once it was about 100 yards from the ship, we detonated it. The blast left a trail of debris and smoke in our wake.

Combined with our turbines emitting zero drive signature, the smoke was meant to fool the Tracers into thinking we’d been disabled. The other ship came around and paused. They were in visual range, so they could see the debris and the Stang just floating in place.

“Did it work?” Jiang asked, his finger poised over his handheld device.

“Not sure yet,” my uncle replied. He watched the distance on the scanner closely. The Tracer ship was closing, but had not increased speed. Their weapons were still hot, of course. If they wanted to destroy us, we were giving them a good chance.

But they were Tracers. If they thought we were disabled, they might just be arrogant and ruthless enough to decide to board and see if we had anything good in the cargo bays. Or, try to subdue us and capture a semi-famous ship in the process.

“Got ‘em,” my uncle said. The Tracers picked up speed and were headed right for us.

“Just tell me when,” Jiang said.

“Wait until I tell you, Jiang. You too, Gary.”

“I still think this is a bad idea,” Gary said.

Once the ship got within a couple miles, my uncle calmly told Gary to cut all power. The ship went as still as I’d ever heard it. No auxiliary. No latent cooldowns. Just…off at the flip of a virtual switch.

“Now,” Uncle E whispered.

Jiang pressed a button on his handheld.

And nothing happened.

The ship kept coming toward us.

“What’s going on?” I asked, freaking out.

“Oh, duh. I forgot to enter the password,” Jiang said. He tapped a few keys. A second later, the Tracer ship’s lights flickered and went to black. It had worked! The Yunan had sent an electromagnetic pulse in all directions. It would fry any working electronics in 10-20 square miles. The Stang was unaffected, as we had shut down. The Tracer ship? Not so much.

Uncle E spun the drive back up and the Stang slowly beeped and hummed to life. It took about 30 seconds, but there was no hurry with the other ship completely disabled.

“Good morning. What did I miss?” Gary asked. “Oh good, we’re still alive.”

I looked at my uncle. “Should I fire?”

“No,” Jiang answered. He shook his head. “We can’t. It would be like shooting an unarmed person.”

“They just tried to kill us,” I argued.

“Doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t be fair,” Jiang said.

“He’s right, Denver,” my uncle said. “Just because we can destroy someone doesn’t mean we should. Never forget that.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed with my uncle and Jiang. What if the Tracer ship was able to power back up? Or the cavalry was on its way? Even though they were disabled, it was an extension of the fight, in my mind. Perhaps reading my thoughts, my uncle softened his eyes and smiled.

“You’ll understand when you’re older,” he said with a laugh. He knew I hated when he said that. “I’ll have Gary keep a missile solution on them while we attach The Yunan to the Stang and get out of here. First things first, you need to get down there to fix the navigational bearings.”

For the next two days, we worked to safely secure The Yunan to our ship. We became the donut hole again. The entire time, the Tracer ship simply floated there, dead in the vacuum. If they got lucky, one of their friends would come along and help them. If they didn’t, well, at least it wasn’t on my conscience.

As we towed Jiang’s ship to its new destination, we spent many hours watching TV and enjoying Jiang’s cooking. By the time we reached the construction site where they were putting the finishing touches on the bold new station, I was sad to see Jiang go.

We never heard from