Beyond the Event Horizon by Albert Sartison Read Free Book Online Page B

his eyes off the
screen in front of him.
    “And then
what?”
    Kimble raised
his eyes.
    “Then there
will be two less pirate ships.”
    “Just like
that, so unceremoniously?”
    “Piracy is a
serious crime. They know the risks.”
    “Couldn’t you
just scare them off?”
    Kimble
grimaced as if from a nagging toothache.
    “If we had not
had the drones, we would only have had a few hours to live, Steve.
In nine out of ten cases when a ship is seized, the crew does not
survive. If we just scare them off, in another couple of weeks
they’ll seize another ship.”
    “I realise
that, but I’m still not happy about it. It seems kind of
underhand.”
    “Have a chat
with Toshi, he’ll tell you a lot of interesting things. He and his
friend were the only survivors of an entire crew when they were
kidnapped during loading. They spent eight weeks in a shuttle
before a patrol chanced to pick them up. And another shuttle with
his fellow crew members in it could not be intercepted, because it
went too far into space and was lost.”
    Steve nodded
to show that he understood the seriousness of the situation. After
the incident on Mars, he himself knew what sort of people they were
dealing with. For distraction, he immersed himself in reading the
dossier on the anomaly. Shelby and his group were continuing to
work on their research on Earth, and were keeping Steve and Clive
in the picture if they succeeded in finding out anything new.
    “Drones will
be in position in three minutes,” reported the ship’s computer in a
matter-of-fact voice several long hours later. Kimble dimmed the
light in the bridge.
    “Action
begins!”
    Steve saw the
image of the pirate ships taken through the drones’ telescopes.
Over the past few hours, they had reached the pirates, turned, and
were approaching them from behind. Now they were flying directly
behind their targets, within the exhaust of their engines. The
picture was partly covered by grey vapour. The drones were
photographing from such a great distance that even the exhaust
dissipated in space clouded them over somewhat.
    “How can they
transmit images without the pirates noticing? They are directly
between us!”
     
    “The drones
sent out a communications satellite, which is flying a few thousand
kilometres to one side. The image is relayed through it by
laser.”
    The live image
of the pirate ships was not very varied. Nothing could be seen
apart from the light from their rear turbines. They twinkled
slightly, and that was all the variety there was in the
picture.
    “Drone 1 in
position, awaiting Drone 2,” came a message from the first drone.
Automatic devices provided information about the current combat
situation in text form.
    “Drone 2 in
position,” reported the second machine a little later, indicating
its readiness. After that, the status reports from both drones
began to come in almost synchronously.
    “Drone 1
locking on to target. Locked on to target.”
    “Drone 2
locking on to target. Locked on to target.”
    “The world
will be a cleaner place without you guys,” muttered Kimble.
Although the pirates deserved to be atomised, he was clearly
deriving no pleasure from the process of killing them.
    “Drone 1
attacking.”
    “Drone 2
attacking.”
    Steve looked
intently at the screen. His heart began to beat faster. Although
the pictures from the monitors did not look any different from a
computer game, they still made a very strong impression on him. He
was so involved in the combat situation that he felt as if he were
there, on board one of the pirate ships.
    He saw in his
imagination the dim light of its bridge, where its captain was
sitting with a bottle of whisky in his hand. The other members of
the crew, unshaven, half drunk, their breath reeking of alcohol,
were playing cards in the next compartment. They were discussing
how they would spend the money they would get from seizing another
ship, not realising that their plans were destined to fail. They
only