Excerpts

Immaculate Revolution

by Nicholas Harvey

"What did he want?" Yugo was waiting for Luxie and TRISH at the cargo bay doors, worry etched into his already careworn face.

"What does Trysdam always want? For us to risk life and ship for one of their harebrained schemes."

Luxie strode across the cargo bay and climbed the metal stairs to the bridge as TRISH gave Yugo a shrug and closed the bay doors. The Mariposa was Luxie's ship and she cared more for it than she did most living beings, herself included. As she sat in the pilots seat and strapped herself in, she gave a benediction to the Universe to keep it safe.

"Where to?" asked Yugo as he strapped in beside her. "By your demeanour I'm assuming we're leaving."

"The Central Planet."

Incredulity struck him across the face and left a noticeable mark.

"Close your mouth, Yugo, or you'll gather stardust."

"I'm just shocked," he replied.

"Get used to it, that's a feeling you're going to be experiencing a lot of in the next forty eight hours." Luxie plotted the coordinates for the Central Planet into the ships computer and hailed Iliena on ships comm. "Iliena, are the modifications finished?"

"Yes, Captain, the Tech crew left about fifteen minutes ago. I made sure they gave me the specs before they left. Those festering carcasses said it was proprietary information but I told them they weren't the ones sticking their balls in a blaster barrel and if anything went wrong I needed to move quickly to rectify..."

"Iliena, please, keep it simple. Can you make the damned thing work or not?" Aggravation crept along Luxie's nerves. If she got out of this assignment alive she was going to give up the whole game. There had to be a planet somewhere remote enough to live out her days relatively free from Imperial influence. She lived and hoped.

"Yes, Captain. There isn't a piece of Tech I can't operate if I've got the specs. Remember that time..."

"Luxie, out!" and she closed the comm connection.

"Apart from our suicidal mission, what's got you on edge?" asked Yugo with a droll smile.

"Isn't that enough for you. Besides, you haven't heard the best yet." Luxie withdrew a cuboid info-node out of her jacket pocket and placed it on the console between her and Yugo. "This is what we're smuggling into the Imperial compound."

"The. Imperial. Compound," he repeated. Disbelief gave his words a staccato effect as he struggled to say them without choking.

"You've got it in one." Luxie depressed the comm button and said, "Iliena, TRISH, ready for departure."

"I was right, it is a suicide mission."

"Don't worry," she told him. "We'll probably never make it to the surface of the planet, anyway. We have been ordered to bypass the Gird."

"It just gets better and better, doesn't it?"

"That it does ,my friend, that it does."

As the Mariposa began its ascent into the planets ionosphere, Luxie closed her eyes. She liked to feel the ship as it was caressed by the nothingness of space. Yugo broke her meditation as he pressed her for more answers.

"Please tell me there is a foolproof plan to accomplish this lunacy. Or, are we a kamikaze diversion for some other fool?"

Luxie sighed and opened her eyes. She powered the plasma thrusters and readied the Barnsley Cascader for the jump to hyperspace. "The modifications to our engine and shields are supposed to make us invisible to long and short range scans. Hopefully we will be through the atmosphere and planet bound before we're even noticed."

"Tech promises?" asked Yugo with derision.

"You're on fire today. Yes, but we aren't going to rely solely on Tech," said Luxie as she braced for Inclusion. She flipped the switch on the comm and said, "Inclusion in three... two... one..."

The Mariposa's inertial dampeners quelled most of the shock of Inclusion, but there were still significant forces buffeting the ship and crew. Once full Inclusion was reached and a pocket of normal space was once again surrounding the ship, the feeling of motion completely vanished, even though they were travelling faster than light.

"We have what no other crew has," she continued when the ship steadied and the sim-grav actuated.

Yugo gave her an expectant look as she undid her straps and stood up. "The finest piloting team anywhere in the verse?" he ventured.

"Dumb luck."