Slave Empire - The Crystal Ship Read Online Free Page B

to get me out of
here?”
    They have you
in an oscillating force field, which disperses a locator beam, and
you are fastened to a metallic table. What do you want me to
do?
    She
considered. “Nothing, for now. Let’s see if anyone answers your
signal, but if no one comes before we reach the Drayconar world I
want you to fight this ship. If they get me on their planet they’ll
kill me, so it doesn’t matter if you jeopardise my life in the
battle if there’s a chance you might save me.”
    It would be
simpler to use the transfer Net once you’re on the surface. They
cannot keep you in a force field all the time.
    “ You won’t get close enough without them detecting you, if
they haven’t already.”
    I do not think
they have. I am beyond their repeller range.
    “ Good. If our communications are cut off, just do as I
said.”
    I will.
     
     
    Tarke opened
his eyes and stared at the bulkhead above him, wondering what had
woken him. The faint beep of the communications’ alarm pierced his
receding drowsiness. He yawned and knuckled his eyes, then rubbed
his face. The alarm’s insistent beeping prodded him into sitting
up, and he ran a hand through his short hair. The lingering effect
of the sleep inducer made him groggy, and he shook his head to
clear it.
    “ What is it, Scimarin?”
    Sleep did not
come easily to him, and when he set the inducer for eight hours,
the ship knew better than to drag him from it without good
reason.
    “ I apologise for waking you, but I’m receiving a distress
signal from Shadowen.”
    He groaned.
“What does he say?”
    “ Draycons have taken the girl. He’s following them at a
distance. They have not detected him yet.”
    “ Where is he?”
    “ On route to Amranon from Mansure.”
    Tarke rubbed
his eyes again. “That’s a long way from here. Has he sent a message
to Atlan?”
    “ He’s broadcasting a general distress signal. Anyone picking
it up should respond.”
    “ Good. The Atlanteans are much closer than we are.” He rose
and went into the bathroom to splash his face, returning refreshed
and fully awake. After pulling on a clean shirt, he went to the
bridge and flopped onto the chair. Scimarin orbited one of his
smaller stations, two of his cruisers alongside. He had just
completed a raid on a slave ship and rescued a hundred and twenty
slaves. As he often did, he had opted to sleep on board, forgoing
his station’s society. Rayne’s predicament niggled him, making him
frown at the star-sprinkled scenery. He had no wish to become
involved in a conflict between Atlan and Draycon, but the human
girl’s plight bothered him for some reason.
    “ Contact Shadowen.”
    A few seconds
later, a space line screen slid from its slot in front of him,
showing the empty pilot’s seat on Shadowen’s bridge.
    “ Shadowen, what’s the situation?”
    “ Rayne is aboard the Draycon ship, Norvar. According to her
biorhythms, she’s unharmed, but she’s being held in an oscillating
force field.”
    “ How did this happen?”
    “ They kidnapped her on Mansure. They must have rendered her
unconscious somehow, for she did not call for help. When I detected
the movement of her bio link, I followed and tracked it to the
Draycon ship.”
    Tarke rubbed
his chin. “What was she doing on Mansure?”
    “ Socialising, I think.”
    “ Typical. How far is Norvar from Amranon?”
    “ About seven hours, at their current speed. Norvar is a slow
ship.”
    Tarke’s eyes
flicked to the scrolling holograms. “Scimarin; how long to
Amranon?”
    “ Nine hours.”
    “ Shadowen, have the Atlanteans responded to your
signal?”
    “ Not yet.”
    The Shrike
rubbed his chin again. “Scimarin, have I got any ships within seven
hours of Amranon?”
    “ Only four. Two cruisers, six hours away, a scout four hours
away, and a battleship six and a half hours away.”
    Tarke ran his
hand over his face in a gesture of weariness and frustration.
Sending ships to Amranon would spark hostilities he did