Free The Phantom in the Deep (Rook's Song) by Chad Huskins Page B

Then, as any good Conductor ought to do from time to time, he advises them.  “It’s important that we know our enemies, but become a student of a thing for too long, and soon you become that thing.”  He turns to the Manager directly behind him.  “Cancel that noise.”
    “Yes sir,” the Manager responds with more than a smidgen of relief.  The music stops abruptly, and everyone on the bridge visibly relaxes.
    “How long before our skirmishers close in?” he asks, turning back to the three-dimensional representation of the Deep all around them.
    “They’re coming into visual range now, sir.  One of their scanners has detected the remains of one of our commandos.  Do you want me to dispatch a team to gather his remains?”
    “ Leave him.  Continue the search for our Phantom.”  There was no room for sentiment.  As a rule, the Conductor and his kind did not like to leave any trace of their biology or technology behind, lest weaknesses be found and exploited, but it is only the Phantom left.  What weakness could he possibly find and exploit on his own?
    Now we once more float away from the bridge, away from the mother ship, across the fields of shifting rock, and past the squadron of skirmishers rocketing towards the Phantom.  We alight soundlessly on the hull of the Sidewinder just as it is cresting the horizon of a two-mile-long asteroid, nicknamed Zipper.  We pass through the compristeel hull and casually slip into the ventilation shaft, past the Leader who is hard at work with his plasma cutter, and then beyond to the cockpit.
    A loud noise amid the silence of space.
     
    “ You don’t know what,
    We can see!
    Why don’t you tell your dreams to me?
    Fantasy will set you free! ”
     
    The pilot sings.  Chimes are going off.  For a moment one alarm sounds, but he quickly switches it off.
     
    “ Close your eyes, girl!
    Look inside, girl!
    Let the sound take you awayyyyy! ”
     
    They’re just behind him.  A few shots are fired, but they’re only glancing blows.  Rook taps a few keys, setting the computer to randomly rotate the frequency of his energy shields.  Hopefully, that will prevent his enemies from setting their own weapons to the same frequency and getting through his shields.
    Of course, some of the energy still came through in powerful bursts.  Secondary and tertiary shielding consists of ROK (rapidly-oscillating kinetic) shielding, as well as a modified EA (endoergic armor).  EA allows the ship to absorb and transfer some of the energy displaced.  Working in tandem with photovoltaic solar cells, the EA converts the energy of particle weapon impacts, electromagnetic attacks, and energy from any nearby ambient starlight to fuel other systems—in other words, the Sidewinder borrows a bit of the energy used in attacking it to fuel parts of its own system.
    It is this endoergic armor that requires he step out of the shadows from time to time and pick fights.  The Sidewinder is dying—has been dying for many years now—and the only power he gets any more comes from what he can absorb endoergically.  The ambient starlight, and even the nearby sun isn’t enough to fill the tremendous needs of his engines.  The energy has to come from somewhere .  Picking fights with Cerebs brought energy from the glancing blows of their particle beams, just as long as he didn’t stay out in them too much, overheat, and explode.
    These systems require constant maintenance by a specialist.  Rook’s entire crew died years ago, leaving him to do the work himself.  Well, he and one other, but we’ll get to that.
    Right now, the Sidewinder is handling some heavy gravitational disturbances.  His ship is a much smaller object than all the rocks around him, which means they all cast effects on his ship, and he is now in the very thick of it.  Even the sun, far away as it is, plays into his maneuvering.  The Sidewinder is always barely holding it together.  It is a complicated system of