Page 24 of The Last Hunt
Maeve glances up at the ceiling. “Yeah?”
“Before we left Omega Starbase, Aethon Trell said that he thought you wanted this bounty so that you could leave the Guild of Two Roses,” TAI says. “Is that true?”
Maeve sighs and rests her hand gently on a support strut of the Archer. “Why do you want to know?”
“A ship AI has got to be prepared for when her captain decides to make changes,” TAI says seriously. “Why, I’d have to make some serious adjustments to be a house AI.”
“A house AI?” Maeve asks, her mouth curving up into a small smile.
“Yes!” TAI exclaims. “If my Maevey is going to be planet-bound, her girl TAI is going to need to adjust some programming, merge with some of the planet’s other AIs, get a security system going - it’s not a walk in the park. It’s a whole heck of a lot of work!”
Maeve rubs a hand over her forehead. The fact that TAI would even think about that, let alone want to come with her makes her heart squeeze with emotion. Over an AI that she only installed a few weeks ago. How has TAI wormed her way so quickly into Maeve’s heart? Perhaps it shows a new weakness in the walls Maeve has carefully built around her life. Yet another reason to leave Two Roses - if she’s not as tough as she used to be she’s bound to fuck something up - to make a mistake that will end up being fatal. That’s what softness and compassion inevitably lead to. But she can’t bring herself to dismiss TAI out of hand.
“You could just stay on the Archer,” Maeve says. “No matter where I go, I’ll keep the Archer nearby.” She pats the strut she’s leaning on and resumes walking back to her quarters.
“Oh honey,” TAI says. “I want to be where you are.”
Hot tears build behind Maeve’s eyes, and she chews on the inside of her cheek to prevent them from spilling over as she walks through her room to the bathroom. She cranks on the shower, and recycled water spits out of the showerhead, warming up quickly. “That’s just your programming,” she says to TAI, muscling her emotions down. “You’re programmed to be loyal to your captain, right?” Maeve starts unbraiding her hair, the wine red strands crimped from being bound up all day.
“What difference does that make?” TAI asks. “We’re a team. Now, Maevey, are you gonna tell me where we’re moving or what?”
Maeve combs her fingers back through her hair and sighs. Inexplicably, she thinks of her mother. She can almost see Aoife Bladesbearer holding out her pale slender hand for young Maeve to take. Let’s go on an adventure.
Maeve bites her bottom lip and shakes her head. This fucking AI is way more than she bargained for. “After we catch Daik,” she says slowly. “I’ll tell you where we’re moving.”
“Yay!” TAI exclaims. “Oooh, I’m so excited, Maevey! If I was any happier, I’d drop my harp plumb through a cloud!”
“I don’t know what the hell that means,” Maeve says, stifling a chuckle. “But this information is confidential, ok?” she says, pointing an index finger at the ceiling where she generally imagines TAI to be. “It would threaten everything if it fell into the wrong hands. Encrypt it with the following security code.” Maeve rattles off a long list of numbers and letters that she typically uses for secure encryptions.
“Done. My lips are sealed, Maevey!” TAI chirps. “But - what about Aethon Trell? He seemed to know what you’re planning.”
Maeve sighs and takes off her boots, the steam from her shower starting to fog up the small bathroom mirror. “We’ll deal with him when the time comes.”
***
It’s been six days since Maeve last spoke to Trell, and yet everywhere she looks, there he is. He’s been - as TAI so eloquently put it - “on her ass like a barnacle on a boat” - since Omega Starbase. Jump point after jump point, the Menace and the Archer race toward the Keidar Belt, neck and neck.
There isn’t a stealthy route to the Keidar Belt. Though it’s an unfathomably large area that surrounds a binary star system, there’s only one line of jump points leading to the Belt. Maeve is banking on the vastness of the Belt to slow Trell down. He may know Daik is near the Belt, but he doesn’t know his exact location. Still, she hasn’t been able to lose Trell yet, despite her best efforts.
Maeve checks her tracking app again, throwing it up on the viewscreen. Though less than a week ago it looked like Daik was moving away from the Keidar Belt, he had just made a quick trip to Nova Halifax and then returned to the Belt, this time ensconcing himself in the Narrows. The Narrows is a gigantic, dangerous asteroid field filled with shifting features and metallic components that make most sensors useless. It’s close to one of the system’s stars, making the location even more dangerous thanks to increased radiation levels and the gravity from the star. A perfect place to hide.
Maeve guides the Archer through the last jump point before the Keidar Belt, her hand tight on the controls. The velvety blue-black of jump space fades and then they’re on the other side. They stop, normal space flooding her field of view, the Keidar Belt straight ahead. Maeve has seen the Belt a few times before, but it’s not a destination by any means. Huge, frozen chunks of rock and other minerals hang in space before her, some areas especially dense. The Archer’s sensors are already spinning, their readings mostly useless. The Menace appears next to them a second later. Maeve looks through the viewscreen at Trell’s ship, the red racing stripes especially visible in the light from their ships reflecting off the icy asteroids.
“TAI,” Maeve says. “Bring up Daik’s location.”
“On it, Maevey,” TAI replies. The screen flicks to a map of the edge of the Keidar Belt, close to where they are. The map zooms in on a red dot - Daik’s ship. Luckily the tracker Maeve used relies on a subspace beam and though it’s less sophisticated than the Archer’s sensors, it’s also unaffected by the heavy metals in the Belt. Daik’s ship is tucked into the Narrows, deep inside. The ship is way too close to the star to be safe, and Maeve wonders if Daik Montrose has upgraded radiation shielding on his ship to be able to stay in that location for an undetermined length of time.
Maeve blows out a slow breath. This is it. This could end everything. She knows Trell will be on her ass the second she moves into the Belt, so she wants to prepare everything beforehand as much as possible so that she will have the best chance of incapacitating Daik’s ship before Trell.
“Charge up the EM pulse,” Maeve says to TAI. “And start mapping a route as best you can through the Belt.”
“Charging,” TAI says. “And mapping.” TAI’s tone is brimming with excitement.
Maeve’s plan is simple. The Archer has two laser cannons, but she needs to bring Daik in alive. If she uses her guns, there’s a chance that she might damage Daik’s ship too much and accidentally kill him in the process. There’s no room for error here. Why use pure force when subtlety will do? So she’ll use an EM pulse. It will temporarily disable Daik’s ship giving Maeve time to get the ship in a tractor beam and wrap an EM net around it, disabling it for the trip back to Brix-9. She’s not anticipating that everything will go smoothly of course, Daik isn’t an idiot. But she has a good shot of trapping him here and ending this whole chase.
Maeve closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. She doesn’t have to let the Archer recharge for as long as normal because she isn’t racing to another jump point, so as soon as TAI has a rudimentary route plotted, they can start moving through the Belt toward the Narrows.
Maeve pushes herself up and stretches. She drops to the deck and does a dozen push-ups, wanting to get some blood flowing. She has to be on her game as they go through the Belt. She’ll have to make course corrections on the fly to avoid hitting asteroids that TAI isn’t able to see. It’s extremely dangerous. Perhaps the most dangerous flying she’s ever done.