Page 25 of The Last Hunt
Maeve stands up and leans on the dash looking through the viewscreen at the Menace again. Trell hadn’t been entirely wrong about it being better to go through the Belt with a partner. If they worked together they could both be on the lookout for obstructions and protect each other. But that won’t work this time. Maeve will have to do it alone.
“I’ve got a course plotted, Maevey,” TAI says. “But whoo boy is it a doozy.” She brings the route up on the screen and Maeve leans back, crossing her arms as she examines it. It’s circuitous and twisty. There are big blank areas where the sensors can’t pick up anything.
“We’ve got this,” Maeve says, nodding once before returning to sit in her chair.
“Hell yeah we do,” TAI chirps. “I’ve got your back, Maevey.”
Maeve grips the joystick and accelerates the Archer forward into the Keidar Belt.
Time seems to be non-existent as Maeve pilots her ship through the Belt. She dodges small asteroids, flings the ship around larger ones, and carefully threads her way through skinny gaps. Maeve feels everything else fall away as she steers the Archer through the asteroids. It’s a type of focus she rarely feels - and she revels in her competence at the helm of the ship, and the joy she experiences in this moment. As she steers around obstacle after obstacle, sometimes with only seconds of notice that she needs to avoid something, Maeve’s certainty that she will succeed in this mission grows. She’s Maeve fucking Bladesbearer. And she gets what she wants. She hasn’t felt this kind of certainty since before Daik almost killed her on Alpha Starbase six months ago. It’s a relief to know she’s still capable of the feeling.
Maeve knows the Menace is following, but she ignores Trell’s ship, focused on keeping the Archer safe. They have shielding, but it won’t protect them from everything. A hit from an asteroid might not completely incapacitate them, but it would cause considerable damage.
Hours pass, and Maeve’s focus is unwavering. Her eyes feel gritty, and her hand starts to cramp around her joystick, but then, they’ve made it. She stops the Archer before the Narrows. The entrance to the Narrows looks like a dark crevice between two enormous mountains, their cliffs sheer vertical walls. The rock is gray, brown and black, mottled with icy white veins and chunks of dully shining metallic substances. The Archer’s sensors are completely useless here. Maeve will have to progress forward through visual input only. Her eyes on the route before her. No artificial aids.
She blinks as a hail comes across her screen, making her hand jerk.
“It’s the Menace,” TAI says.
“Ignore them,” Maeve replies. TAI swipes the call to the side, but Maeve can still see it in the corner of the screen, a slowly pulsing red light. “TAI, will our EM pulse reach Daik’s ship from outside the Narrows?”
“No,” TAI says. “Sorry Maevey, but it looks like it’s into the fire with us.”
“Fuck,” Maeve mutters. She sighs. “It’s now or never.”
“Maeve,” TAI says slowly. Her lack of a pet name makes Maeve pause.
“Yeah?”
“The Menace is hailing on a priority channel now,” TAI says. “And it’s AI CAL has sent a written message.”
“Ignore the priority hail,” Maeve repeats. “Trell just doesn’t want me to go into the Narrows. He’s only concerned with himself though. He’s trying to distract me.”
“What about the message from CAL?” TAI asks.
Maeve bites her bottom lip. “Read it,” she says impulsively.
TAI reads the message without inflection. “Captain Trell is concerned that the Archer won’t be able to steer through the Narrows alone. He’s been hailing, but you’ve clearly ignored his calls. He’s pleading with Captain Bladesbearer to allow him to help her. If his assistance leads to the capture of Daik Montrose, he will require only the smallest portion of the bounty. Enough to pay some of his important debts. He will keep her secrets. If she keeps ignoring his calls, he makes no promises about keeping Bladesbearer’s secrets about leaving Two Roses.”
“Fucking hell,” Maeve says through clenched teeth. “That asshole is blackmailing me?”
“That is how it reads to me, Maevey,” TAI says, her voice serious for once. “I can’t believe Aethon would do that.”
“I can,” Maeve replies. She wipes sweat off her forehead, and leans forward.
“Do you want me to respond?” TAI asks.
“No,” Maeve snaps. “I don’t care what he says. We’re going in.”
She pushes the joystick forward, accelerating the Archer toward the dark abyss of the Narrows. As soon as they move inside, the Archer’s lights illuminate only a short distance in front of their ship. Everything else is swallowed in darkness.
“God,” Maeve says. She slows the ship. A chunk of space rock appears suddenly in front of them and she swerves, avoiding it just in time. Once again, Maeve zones in on her piloting, ignoring everything else. For forty-five minutes, she weaves through the Narrows avoiding obstacles. A spear of icy rock scrapes along the side of the Archer, the sound grating through the ship, but the shields take the brunt of the damage. Maeve has no idea if the Menace is following them or not.
“According to the tracking app,” TAI says softly. “Daik’s ship is in a crack in the rock up ahead. Our EM pulse should be able to disable him from this distance.”
Maeve can’t see anything in the darkness. She’s not sure if she can trust the ship’s sensors to even aim the EM pulse correctly. She wants to see Daik’s ship before setting off the pulse - as it takes a long time to recharge. But if she can see Daik, then he can see her, giving him an opportunity to escape.
As if she summoned him with her very thought, a tiny silver ship whips into her field of vision and zooms up. She doesn’t have an opportunity to set off the EM pulse. Instead, she rams the Archer around and races after the ship, careless of the danger. As soon as she turns the ship, she sees where Daik’s ship is heading. There is a huge crack at the top of the Narrows, hidden around a bend. Daik’s ship whips easily through it and Maeve follows, only to be momentarily blinded by a blast of white light.