Free Children of Steel by John Van Stry Page A

out that wasn't so. Like I said before, I like
all the friends I can get.
    Breakfast was a quiet affair; most of the
people in the mess were being rather subdued.
    “What’s got everyone so worried?” Terease
asked as we sat down and started to eat.
    “Breakout,” I said starting in on my own
plate which was piled much higher than normal, and only with high
protein foods.
    “I must be missing something,” she said. “Why
is breakout so worrisome?”
    “You know the breakout flash?”
    She nodded, “Of course, all that potential
energy has to go somewhere, and so it’s realized as a full spectrum
discharge across the entire electromagnetic spectrum to satisfy the
requirements of Planck’s constant and the Hertz-Hotlzman…"
    I held up my hand stopping her. “That flash
tells everyone that we’re here.”
    She nodded, “And?”
    “Pirates.”
    She blinked, “Oh. I didn’t know that. Who are
they?”
    I shrugged, “Could be anybody, another
corporation that sees easy pickings and decides to try and pick up
some extra profits this quarter, a competitor with a good spy
network and a vendetta to satisfy.”
    “I’d still think the odds of someone hitting
us at breakout are pretty small,” she said digging back into her
food. “After all, space is pretty vast.”
    I nodded, “Unless they have really good
intelligence on what our vector and state were when we went into
jump and get there with it before we do. But there’s always the
random element.”
    She nodded.
    “Also, it will take several days for us to
reach the area patrolled by Hobson’s own forces. Until then someone
could try and jump us.”
    “But then we’d see them coming."
    “True, and that would give us more of an
advantage, but it still wouldn’t stop them.”
    “Well couldn’t the Captain just return to
Jump Space if we come out too close to a pirate?”
    I nodded pausing to swallow another piece of
sausage. “If the conditions are right, sure. That’s part of our job
in the shuttles, to either destroy the attacker, drive them off, or
give the Captain enough time to make another jump.”
    We continued eating for another minute, I
could see the gears turning and waited for the inevitable
question.
    “If the Captain takes the ship back into jump
space, what happens to the shuttles?” She asked after a minute.
    “We’ll get left behind of course.”
    “Oh…”
    “It’s not that bad. Those assault shuttles
are fairly roomy and we pack emergency rations. So either we land
or wait for rescue.”
    “But a shuttle doesn’t have the power to burn
off the kinds of speeds it would have inherited from the
Astra!”
    “Rudy’s pretty good with math and orbital
mechanics aren’t that tough that I can’t do them either.” I
chuckled “I think we’d have a pretty good chance at a sling shot
braking maneuver.”
    She shuddered at that. “I’m glad I’m in
Engineering. You wouldn’t ever catch me doing that kind of
thing.”
    I smiled, “I don’t know, I kind of feel the
same way about engineering."
    She smirked, “You would.”
    “Well on this trip I don’t think it’s going
to be much of an issue. Hobson’s Choice has a pretty well
established government and an actual space navy that patrols the
more strategic breakout areas. Plus I’ve heard that they won’t deal
with any corporations they find pirating in their system.”
    “Well just be careful, okay?"
    “Of course.” I gave her a hug, “wouldn’t want
to let you miss out on your revenge now, would I?”
    She smiled, “You’d better not!”
    The rest of breakfast passed quietly and
saying my goodbyes I headed down to the shuttle bay. From that
point on I was on alert for the rest of the flight.
    Being that I was the new guy I was in the
bottom of the rotation and assigned the most dangerous position,
shuttle number one. I found Rudy my WSO and we suited up and went
down to the launch rack to check the shuttle over.
    After convincing ourselves everything was