Clawing holes in the Black

Upon Jai, ten'on. Blessing of Heaven. She stumbled into the boat that was transporting Aurora at a small transit and refueling station in the Blue Sun system. A stroke of luck. Karma shining on us. More then that, she'd managed to get the ident code from the transport's pulse beacon. It was probably forged but that wouldn't matter to our mission. We knew their boat. We knew where they were and where, roughly, they were going.

Within minutes of Jai's last wave - she'd been keeping an eye on the boat until she got a little spooked and backed out for safer ground - General and I had mounted up and gotten a wave to Sabrina to meet us on the platform. It would take only a few minutes to soft dock to the platform, let 'Brina board, and turn and burn for the small Corper way-station where Jai'd spotted Aurora.

I plotted a course for us that would bring us into position without making it apparent we were on an intercept, or even out of the Kalidaza system. Gravitational slingshots are your friend, especially when you want to back into an area without lighting up the 'Verse with your drive flares.

Catching the transport itself wouldn't be a major issue. Jai'd sent me a vid clip of the boat and Sabrina identified it at a glance. Model. Yard of origin. Power plant. Drives. Capacity. Performance. All at a glance. Given the usual budgets Slavers expended on their boats, the chances of them being able to get away from us or even see us was slim to none. We couldn't afford to be over-confident, but Wave Equation should be more than up to the task ahead of us.

During the many hours it took us to burn across the Black from Kalidaza to Qing Long, we got ready. General'd brought along some raw material for custom explosives. With his demolitions expertise and Sabrina's mechanical knowledge, we'd be able to surgically disable that boat without affecting the crew. At least until we were ready to affect the crew.

Jacking into the remote Navtrak stations was my job, which would let us find that transport and vector in on them when we got close enough that it mattered. As far out as we were, we couldn't really set an intercept vector until we know for sure where they were. That was something that would take time. The inevitable consequences of lightspeed. It would also be my job to slip aboard that boat and extract Aurora when the time came. Extract any other captives we found aboard, for that matter.

Jai hadn't been able to tell how many people were being kept aboard the transport. It wasn't a large boat. Maybe eighty meters nose to tail. Considerably bigger than a Matagi or my old Corsa, but smaller than, say, a Firefly, or Stevedore, class transport. But still big enough to have a fair sized crew and a hundred 'Laborers' stuffed in the hold. Assuming you didn't care about your passenger's conditions, which Slavers usually didn't.

For now, all we knew was there were at least a handful of people aboard with Aurora, and we'd know more about the transport's compliment when we got closer.

When we got closer. We would deal with them then. If there were innocents aboard, we'd set them free. If not? It would just be me and the Slavers. Either way, there could be no question about the outcome.

Aurora would be free.

And the Slavers? The Slavers would end. Alone. In the Black.




Patience Little One.
Mother Dragon comes for you.
You will be home soon.