I did consider terminating this part at a cliffhanger earlier but then, this one is the logical break.
UPDATE: End of chapter under ====
---------------
So this was it? Val saw the large rings shimmer faintly in the dark. The light of the far away sun had trouble reaching that far. Large rings, on closer inspection it turned out that they weren’t actually that large at all. The layout of the course that Arox had projected on the main screen showed they were also quite closely arranged. Top speed really was not going to be an issue. It’d be hard enough not to touch the rings. The hardest part was to make it through the first two sections; the third one appeared to be considerably easier.
“Before we start, you should know that I hold the course record. Are you ready?” Reg announced full of confidence.
“As the Goners say ‘Rise comes before the fall.’” Val responded laughingly. “You go first, at least that gives me a chance to learn the course a bit more.”
The guys laughed out loud at her reply. She sure had guts. “Learn as much as you like, it is not going to help.” Reg announced with undiminished arrogance. “Time starts when I pass the first gate.”
With these words he hit the boost and the Mamba leaped towards the first gate. Smoothly he passed through and did a tight turn aiming for the second one, all the while cheering himself up. After four gates he became quiet, even his friends stopped shouting to avoid disturbing his concentration. He definitely was an excellent pilot, his aggressive approach got his ship various times close to clipping the gates but he always just made it. There was a slight mistake at gate 15, which he carried through to gate 16 before he managed to get the flow up again. The final three gates were easy and he cheered relieved when he passed through the last one.
“Your turn, honey. Don’t destroy the gates, will you?” There was no surprise that he could not do without the banter but his voice clearly showed that after his mistake confidence was not at an all-time high anymore.
“Arox, can you plot the fastest course, please?”
A number of lines of different colours connected the gates on the screen. “Your friend’s route is marked red. If you follow the blue line you will be able to beat him by 12 sezuras. The green line marks the smoothest course and will beat his time by 4 sezuras if you don’t make any mistakes.”
“Ok, I’ll take the green one but don’t actually want to win. Can you throttle down before the last gate just enough so we lose by a couple of sezuras?”
“I can do that, just don’t hit the gates or I don’t need to slow down the ship.”
“I shall give it my best shot.” Val smiled and accelerated towards the first gate.
Arox’ description of smooth was only partly correct. The nature of the course did not allow for a smooth ride. Following the virtual track Val passed through the first two gates, lined up for the third, turned in gently and passed through. The fourth one was aligned on an acute angle exiting perpendicular to the plane of the course. The Barracuda shot up, and while passing through the narrow gate, Val twisted the stick and rolled the ship for an equally steep dive towards gate five. On her final approach of the gate she orientated her fighter for the next gate and engaged the strafe drive, drifting sideways through the obstacle while already accelerating on her new trajectory. She cleared the gates as if she had raced on this course all her life.
Tarok’s gang had fallen quiet. Had they to start with tried to distract her, after seeing the ease she passed the gates with they just watched in awe. Reg grew increasingly nervous in his seat the further Val progressed through the course. Looking at the time he could clearly see that she was at a matching pace. For the transition from gate eight to nine Val crossed her previous flight path rolling the heavy fighter into position for a clear exit. Her race was flawless to this point. Yet, as a result of her intense concentration small beads of sweat started to form on her forehead. Val forced herself to remain calm and keep a relaxed grasp of the stick. Losing her calm would jeopardise her plan. Now she had passed gate 14. Was she going to have similar problems as Reg? As far as he could tell gate 15 had been out of line. It had never been easy to pass through it at high pace. Perhaps a larger ship crashed against it and tilted it ever so slightly. He held his breath.
“How are we doing? Are we still on course for victory?”
“Yes, the next two gates are the ones your friend struggled with. You may want to tilt the ship slightly to the right as the first one appears to be out of line with the other ones.”
Val tilted the Barracuda just a few degrees and shot towards the gate. Slightly overshooting she turned the ship hard and hit the boost. The ship only just missed the inside of the ring and passed through.
“Phew, that was close indeed. Thank you for that hint. I can see why he had trouble here. The next gate looks fine, I think he had just lost his rhythm.”
Reg could nothing but admire the elegant manoeuvre Val had used to pass the misaligned gate. If she didn’t make any mistakes from here on she’d beat him. Impossible! He should ask for a second try! Well, perhaps she made a mistake at gate 17, which was the last really tight turn. No, she didn’t. Unbelievable, he lost to a woman. There she came, gate 18, 19 and 20. Time stopped. Hang on, where did she lose those sezuras?
“Yeehaa!” Reg clenched his fist in triumph. This had been close. It was unthinkable that he had almost lost the race, he, the champion of them all! “Pretty impressive ride, honey. Just not quite there, I’d say.”
“Yeah, a real shame, and I almost had you, champion.” Val responded.
All could notice the relief in Reg.
“Just where at those last gates did you lose those six sezuras?” Jasso’s voice sounded anything but convinced. In the bar already he had suspicion to this so innocent looking young woman that purely accidentally met them in a moment when they had something major going. And now this race. As far as he could tell, she would have won easily. Why did she decide to lose? Just to save Reg’s vanity? Hardly. Somebody who can watch the timepiece on a track like that had to be more than a hotshot pilot. Was it perhaps better to simply blow her to pieces? Right now and there?
“Everybody makes mistakes, Jasso. Even I did as you noticed. If I hadn’t she’d not been so close. Why do you always try to spoil things?” It hurt Reg that Jasso felt Val should have won. Clearly there was no better pilot than him in the known universe. If there was, he’d know it and had set the record straight.
“That is alright, Reg.” Val interjected. “I did indeed miss an acceleration point after I had cleared the hard section, which cost me dearly. I guess concentration just faded at some point.”
“See. Nobody is perfect.” Reg agreed excitedly. “Though I have to say how you passed through gates four and 15 was mighty impressive. There can’t have been much room in the latter one. You noticed something wrong with it?”
“Yes, it appeared to be misaligned, not by much but just enough to make it a hard pass. Certainly good to interrupt the flow.”
“Well girl, you have proven that you don’t hit things while flying. How about some Xenon hunting?”
“Nah thanks. I try to stay out of fights where I can. This is nothing for me.”
“Shame, that’d have been fun, the five of us clearing a Xenon sector.” There was no doubt he was serious about it.
“Ok guys, enough playing games for this tazura. We have work to do.” It was the first time Tarok joined in the conversation. He had be monitoring the surrounding sectors while everybody else had followed the race. A small flight of three Mambas and two Scorpions had just passed the gate to Ministry of Finance. He could be wrong but chances were they were after him. “We meet at the usual location.”
“Sorry honey, we have to leave, it was a pleasure racing with you. Take the time and practice for next time, while you are here.” Reg laughed at his last words but he appeared to be sad that they had to part before they could clear a Xenon sector. They dipped the wings of their ships in salute and accelerated away.
“What is that going to be?” Val wondered aloud.
“They are charging their jumpdrives, it appears they are looking to make a fast getaway.”
“Any chance you can use that jump inhibitor on Tarok’s ship?”
“According to the field strength Tarok will be the last to jump, however, only be two sezuras. It will be difficult to time the pulse so only his ship will be affected without risking to lose him.”
“Darn, try it anyway. If possible I don’t want his gang to be immediately aware of what is going on. They may at least for a while assume that he set them up.”
“I read two life signs on his ship, one of them being significantly weaker than the other one.”
“It appears he did not trust anybody on the station enough to leave his hostage there. Well, this can only work in our favour. Can you transport both out once the inhibitor kicks in?”
“Yes, although I can only transport both to more or less the same location.”
“Hmm. I wouldn’t want both of them together in the cargo hold. But hey, why not only get Tarok off the ship and into space? I should then be able to take over and control his ship.”
“Time is up. Last suggestion accepted and executed. Three ships have left the sector and Tarok is inspecting his ship from the outside.”
“Ok, let us get close enough to establish a laser link and acquire this heap of Split ingenuity.” With these words Val eased the Barracuda closer to the Mamba.
Once the link had been established she transported the Split female over to the small room on her ship that she used to sleep in on long hauls. The woman showed severe signs of exhaustion and fatigue, despite her strong build. It appeared Tarok had starved her to break her. Val removed the restraints and got a food ration out of the compartment.
“I have been asked to look for you and will bring you back to your family. But first we need to pick up your kidnapper and take care of his ship. You can stay here and rest.”
“Lok, where is Lok?” The woman asked with a weak voice.
“Who is Lok? Is this the name of your brother?”
The woman nodded.
“We will meet him soon. Now please rest.”
Back in the cockpit Val instructed Arox to transport Tarok in a sealed off area of the cargo hold. In the meantime she established a connection to the ship computer of the Mamba. From her time with the Dragon clan she knew how to hack into Split systems. One of her specialities back then was the resetting of the ship id, a skill that yet again came in very handy. After less than five mizuras the Mamba did no longer broadcast an id, it should be more or less impossible to identify it as Tarok’s ship without close inspection. ‘Welcome to my collection,’ Val smiled.
“Arox, please get all the gear that the ship does not need and have it jump to Lucky Planets and dock at the power plant. Leave the shield and the guns.”
“All salvageable equipment has been stored in the cargo hold; one 5MW shield, five Silkworm missiles and one computer component that appears to be an engine override device. Two Massdrivers plus ammunition, two Beta HEPT cannons, one 25MW and 60 energy cells remained onboard. Also there is still a small amount of Spaceweed and Space Fuel in the hold and you should eject these commodities. It is also not advisable to return to the pirate station at this point in time.”
“That is alright. Let us dispose of the contraband and send the ship home. I’ll patch a message to our Split friend.”
====
“You are a person of your word, something that cannot be said for many Argons. Even more, you are also very generous as you even returned my sister without re-negotiating our deal. Follow us to Family Rhy and I will reward you as you deserve.”
“Your sister called you Lok, do you care telling me your full name?”
“I don’t know your full name either, in fact, if I hadn’t studied the logs of your stay at our dockyard in Family Rhy, I’d not even know your first name. So Lok will do for now. Everything else you will find out when you need to know.”
There was something secretive in his words that Val could not quite make sense of. But what was in a name? Nothing really, it was the person that carried that name that counted.
Lok and his two friends or escorts headed for the North gate and Val followed as advised. “Any chance you guys have jumpdrives in your ships?”
“We do but to keep a low profile we opted for Perseus fighters and do not have sufficient energy cells in the hold to jump back.”
“Well, that is easy, I can stock you up. Always better than trundling at walking speed through six sectors.”
*
When the four ships docked at the dockyard in Family Rhy they were met by a large group of Split that appeared to be overjoyed to see Lok and his sister back in one piece. When Lok pointed out that it was Val who deserved the honour and gratitude for saving his sister most of the fierce-looking Split men glanced at her in disbelief. A woman, an Argon female had managed to not only capture the kidnapper but also free his hostage? If somebody else but Lok had said so, they’d have just laughed at him. This Argon female, that had raised her chin provocatively while smiling at them. Yet, they motioned a slight bow as sign of their gratitude. Were they surprised about what she had achieved; it was now Val who was impressed about their gesture. Lok appeared to be quite influential.
“Follow us to the control room of this station. I have arranged your reward and it should be ready and waiting for its new owner.” During her time as a pirate Val had learnt to interpret all the emotions a Split could express. Most of the time it was nuances of rage. But what showed on Lok’s face was honest gratitude and pleasure. Arrived in the control room, he motioned her to the large window front that provided an excellent overview of the construction area of the dockyard. It was a hive of activity. There were space suits floating around everywhere. It became obvious to Val that this facility had not been built for civil purpose. Nobody would have expected that from Split anyway. However, seeing that the workers were actually assembling four heavy fighters, six medium fighters, three scout ships and one corvette class ship at the same time was impressive. To her surprise it all happened in a very organised manner, disciplined and tidy. All traits that Split were not exactly famous for. Her admiration must have shown as Lok smiled at her.
“You look surprised. Not all Split are the barbarians that your media make them appear as. As small as this facility is, it has the greatest output of fighter ships of all in the Split Empire. Our efficiency is unmatched and all our workers are very proud of it. They are well paid and consequently enjoy their work.”
“I am indeed deeply impressed. This is not what I am used to from my time with Split. As tidy, organised and disciplined as this dockyard is, it’d almost give the Boron counterparts a run for their credits.”
Lok laughed at the comparison and pointed across the construction area to the outside docking cage. “I hope you will accept this as a payment. This ship has only been completed two tazuras ago and contains our latest developments. Consider it yours.”
Val just stood there, her mouth wide open. She did have one of those ships in her possession, if only for one stazura, in Cloudbase South East. Back then she had decided to sell it, as it would have been too much of a bell around her neck. But this ship was brand-new, a shiny new Dragon corvette. It was clearly the most beautiful of all corvettes, sleek, fast and deadly.
“You are kidding, right? I can’t accept such a gift!”
“Rejecting it would be an offence. Also, this is not a gift but payment for the job that you have done. I am extremely grateful for your help and am not ashamed to show it. Please accept it. Our engineers gave the ship the name Ashoka, which means …”
“… without sorrow.” Val completed the sentence entranced.
Lok looked surprised at her. “You speak our language?”
“Only a little. A friend of mine taught me conversational Split.”
“Well, I would not exactly class this word as conversational. But seeing you have had interest in our language, I am all the more convinced that you of all Argon deserve to own this ship.”
Val swallowed. Was she happy? Of course she was. It had been so painful parting from the last one and now she had a second chance to call one her own. Arox had raised concern about taking ownership of such a powerful ship. But a Split of whatever high rank gave this one to her. The circumstances were different. After several mizuras of silence Val spoke with a husky voice.
“I am honestly not sure if it is wise to accept such a payment …,” she started, “… but I would not want to offend you.” With that she jumped as high as she could. Her childlike pleasure was another indication to him that he had made the right decision. Lok was known for his excellent judge of character and he had been right again. A happy smile was taking over his lately so concerned facial expression.
*
“You don’t need to say it, I heard it all.”
“So, what do you reckon? Fancy relocating? I know it is not the advanced housing of Boron ingenuity but it is a lot bigger, and size does matter, no?”
“I am not certain what you are referring to but yes, the capacity of the computer is considerably larger than the one of this ship.”
“Well, that is settled then, you can have pink curtains if that floats your boat, or a plush lounge suite. Just decorate it as you please.”
“Very funny. It makes me wonder if your Split friend can actually be happier about getting his sister back than you about that ship.”
“Well, I don’t know either. But I do know that I am happy. Let’s get going. Once it cleared the dock you can setup a link and copy your routines onto its computer. Let me know when you are happy with it and I’ll transport over.”
Val sat back grinning happily while the two ships cruised towards the North gate. Taking control over the Dragon’s computer cost Arox almost half a stazura. If it wasn’t for her fabulous mood, Val would have got unsettled in boredom. Right now, however, she was in seventh heaven.
“Conversion completed, ship features improved to latest acquired technological level. Combat load out is five Massdrivers, four Gamma HEPTs and one Alpha PPC, no ammunition. It is currently missing a jumpdrive and a transporter device. The first one we can pick up from the power plant, the latter will have to either be removed from the Barracuda or purchased at the Goner temple.”
“Alright, we go to Lucky Planets, switch the gear over and send the Barracuda on a shopping spree.”
*
Similar to Lucky Planets, the appearance of a Split corvette in the Boron home sector caused considerable interest and attention. Val pointed at the gravidar. They could see stations launch fighters and also the sector patrol ships were closing in on their position.
None of the ships opened fire; Val appreciated the peaceful nature of this race. Entering a Split sector in a Boron corvette would probably provoke a fight the instance they cleared the gate.
On her command the Jaguar launched from the shipyard and docked shortly after. They stationed the Dragon near the Trading Station and requested docking permission for the M5.
Bola Ti’s return was celebrated but also met with suspicion. He was picked up by a security team and escorted to the Queen. Val acknowledged that he was right that the Queen would receive him. But would she also let him go? Or even more so, would she let either of them go? Sure, they had brought the plans for the ID’s but not the weapon itself.
“Arox, can you please keep a lock on me. I don’t want any surprises but can’t just sit here and wait. Last time we were here I did not take much time to have a look around.”
“Positive. Transporter range is five decks. Beyond that I will only be able to track you.”
“That’ll do for now. See you soon.” Val turned, activated the transporter and materialised in the visitor’s section of the station.
To her surprise there was nobody around. She wondered if that had to do with their arrival. Not likely, they would have hardly admitted her to this deck.
Val walked down the hall to an Argon restaurant. It was deserted; even staff did not appear to be around. The manager leaned at the bar and mustered her curiously. Putting up a friendly smile, Val approached him.
Looking around she said, “Can one have something to eat or is the place closed today?”
“Well, I am surprised to see you here. We are all waiting for a notice that the station is open for other races again. It had been closed two tazuras ago when two Teladi spies of the Curada clan were captured. They had been working in one of the shops at the other end.” The man seemed happy to have somebody to chat to and continued to reiterate the events of the past few tazuras. “It is suspected that they were involved in the disappearance of Bola Ti and some secret technology. You may have heard about it, some weapon or so. It had been stolen from a research base once, and after recovery and relocation of the lab, the scientist and the weapon had vanished again.”
He took a deep breath and looked at Val as if he expected a reaction. She just looked at him and motioned to continue.
“So yes, the two have been caught and are now being questioned. Not so sure how much that will yield, knowing the Boron. They should hand them over to the Argon secret service. Anyway, so basically all staff in any of the shops and restaurants are on leave until further notice. Seeing you is almost like a silver lining on the horizon.”
“That is interesting news. Well, I didn’t actually take the traditional way to get here. I used the transporter. Perhaps the re-opening is not all that imminent. So is there any food available at all?”
“A transporter? I did not know they had developed devices that actually worked between ships and stations yet. I could do with one of those, too. Where did you get it from?”
“Oh, that is only a pre-series model, a prototype. The Goners will sell it anytime soon.” Val hurried to explain. “Uhm, food?”
“Ah right, food. You can have whatever the dispenser delivers. Since there is no chef in today that is all I have to offer.”
“That’ll be fine.”
Val sat down and ate her Argnu sandwiches. The universe had not stood still while they had been in the Southern sectors. Somebody obviously knew that the weapon was not destroyed, knew or at least assumed. The news the restaurant manager had given her confirmed that it was the Curada clan that tried to get their hands on the Ion Disruptor technology. Well, they were too late.
After finishing her meal Val returned to her ship and discussed the situation with Arox. Soon they were interrupted by Bola Ti’s return. He looked happy yet distressed. Before Val could ask he started and the words literally bubbled out of his snout. After a while Val waved and motioned him to start again.
The Queen had been highly pleased with his return and the completion of his research. She was, however, not so happy when he declined her request to take a position in a new research base in Queen’s Space. It took him much convincing to have her accept his desire to work in a secret location on the new project. As the Queen she was not used to her people disregarding her wishes. However, Bola Ti was possibly the finest scientist in the Boron matriarchy.
“And finally she asked me, well, in fact you, to do her a great favour. As we speak one of our greatest scientists is on his way from Atreus’ Clouds to Home of Light. Seeing your ship, my Queen asked if we could make sure he arrives safely. She’d be very grateful and so would be the entire people of Boron. We have lost too many great scientists lately.”
“Ok, I don’t think that is too much trouble. Where is he now?”
“Apparently he is just about to enter Argon Prime.”
“Well, let’s get aboard our Dragon and go to AP.”
Still struggling with simplicity of language. It might make it easier to read but I sometimes feel like I am missing the appropriate words. That then starts a hunt in the dictionary. So in a way it is a very good way of learning more of the language. 
Can't believe I didn't check that one, even more so since the German word for matriarchy is Matriarchat, which should have given me the hint. 