Keelic and the Pathfinders of Midgarth

Keelic and the Pathfinders of Midgarth

by

ALEXANDER EDLUND

The Keelic Travers Chronicles

Book 2

Keelic and the Pathfinders of Midgarth

Copyright © 2018 by Alexander Edlund

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express permission of the publisher. Thank you for respecting the rights of this author.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locales, and incidents are products of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual people, places or events is coincidental or fictionalized.

Published United States 2018 by Landstrider Press

www.alexanderedlund.com

ISBN: 978-0-9969936-8-5

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 — Stop, or I will make you

Chapter 2 — Deepholm

Chapter 3 — Pathfinder Cadet

Chapter 4 — I think Garth has plans for you

Chapter 5 — Not if I find him first

Chapter 6 — Welcome to New Jove, Captain

Chapter 7 — Engaging translight . . . now!

Chapter 8 — Kill it

Chapter 9 — You are not meant to be us

About the Author

Chapter 1

Stop, or I will make you.

On the bridge of his battleship the Revenge, Keelic used the central holographic pit to watch the council meeting in the ship’s strategic planning room. Thirty bruised and angry Ermolian colonists shouted at one another across the projection table. When they’d been told that a twelve-year-old boy had captured the pirate flagship and saved all their lives, their disbelief had been total. It had turned vicious when Keelic refused to give them control of the ship.

The planetary steward had formed an interim government aboard that he called the Planetary Council, and argued daily for taking the Revenge away from Keelic. Opposing the steward was the Pathfinder Charles Hallod, who led a minority of survivors in reminding the angry citizens that they owed their lives and freedom to Keelic, and that the young captain was the only one who knew how to fly the ancient battleship.

Keelic’s mother was sitting in the Navigation command seat on the other side of the holo pit, watching him closely. Before he had called up the view of the council, the bridge had been peaceful, and she needed peace. She liked the soft directionless lighting and the classic lines of the seven nautilus-shaped Command chairs that ringed the big holographic array.

A bitter comment by the planetary steward sent anger flaring in Keelic that was like a pulsar blast she felt through Thotti, his telepathic alien friend. In recent days, when she had tried to comfort her son, he shied away. He was gentle for her sake, but the message was clear: Keelic was not to be coddled. Her husband had told her that Keelic was now a man, but she didn’t see how that was possible. At the same time, the fury in her boy made him someone she didn’t know, and that terrified her. Worse, it seemed she could do nothing to help him. She found it ominous that Keelic had renamed the ship Revenge after he defeated the pirate fleet and rescued her and two thousand others. She couldn’t make sense of him anymore. The one thing she had learned about him in the eight days since the battle was that of all the remaining planetary leaders and officers aboard the ship, none were so dangerous as her twelve-year-old son.

She looked at Leesol Hallod standing beside him. The girl was frowning, watching the image of her father respond to the argument raging in the planning room. With Leesol, Keelic seemed to be a boy again, and his mother willed the girl to do something to ground Keelic’s rising temper.

Leesol stared at Keelic before putting a hand on his shoulder. He twitched away before realizing who it was, then looked at her in concern that he had insulted her. She smiled that she understood, and put her hand back on his arm. He tried to smile, but gave up and walked away from the display.

Sad, she turned to look at Keelic’s best friend, the young alien Thotti. To Leesol, the being looked like a flexible, streamlined turtle with soft pale fur covering his shell and twelve flexible legs around the rim. He sat on the command chair seat with all his legs curled beneath him.

Both eyestalks followed Keelic as he walked up the short stair to the upper tier of bridge consoles. Thotti was the only one who knew what Keelic was truly feeling, the deep reasons, and the alien echoed Keelic’s anger telepathically with crimson color, and a nimbus of purple-blue sadness. Feeling Leesol’s regard, Thotti turned one eye to look at her.

To the alien, she thought, Help him, Thotti.

Leesol’s vision swirled blue and she felt a sense of affirmation. Thotti got up and followed Keelic off the bridge.

The ship corridors were quiet as Keelic stomped down them. Why are they so stupid? They have to know I’ll never give them Las.

In doubtful yellow-green, Thotti showed him the planetary steward, red-faced and shouting to be heard in the clamor of the council conference: It does not matter what he did. Authority must command this ship. Even if he saved our lives, which has yet to be proven, he cannot claim a warship because of it. He cannot command. He’s a blighted boy!

Through clenched teeth, Keelic said, I heard it the first time. You don’t have to tell me again. Space! Why do you do that?

Hurt by Keelic’s accusatory emotion, Thotti’s eyes retracted on their stalks.

Las, the ship’s sentient Announcer, said, Captain?

Still mad, Keelic said, What?

An anti-luminal mine has detonated beyond the edge of the planetary elliptic. Shock wave vector is consistent with a vessel traveling the intersystem Beacon Way.

Keelic froze as reasons for such a thing flashed through his mind, the worst of them being a return of the pirates.

Project the shield! he shouted. Battle Protocol.

Shield up. Battle Protocol, aye, said Las as Keelic sprinted for the bridge.

He didn’t bother with the stairs into the central Command well, sliding instead under the upper-tier railing, landing and bouncing hard into the side of the Command chair. He grunted and scrambled up into its curved seat as Thotti leapt from the rail to land on the curved dome of the Resource Allocation chair to his left. Thotti swung down into the seat as Keelic reached up for the Command seat’s neural interface.

Keelic? asked his mother from the Navigation chair to his right.

He didn’t answer, yanking down the interface and setting it firmly around his head.

Space outside the ship dominated his vision—the planet Ermol beside him in blue, green, and white, with some remains of the space station still in orbit, and a pair of descending debris fireballs trailing thin lines of smoke through the upper atmosphere. Surrounding him, tens of millions of anti-luminal mines orbited in a vast cloud of blue dots around the planet. Thirty degrees around the system’s planetary elliptic and forty degrees to stellar north, the System Beacon pulsed its signal. Just beyond, a small cloud of gas and debris was expanding slowly across the area. Keelic watched a replay of the powerful detonation. Someone had mined the Beacon Way. And whoever had just arrived in-system was now a part of the expanding cloud.

Las, did you see what kind of ship?

No data before mine detonation, Captain, Las replied. The weapon itself was stealthed. Debris mass and vapor spectrum are consistent with a small military vessel.

A Mercury courier? asked Mr. Hallod, arriving at a run.

Sir, I do not have a materials spec on the Mercury class, answered Las.

Lyn does, Mr. Hallod said.

It took Las less than a second to get an answer from Mr. Hallod’s House-Announcer on the planet below, and the ship said, Yes, Admiral, it was almost certainly a Mercury.

Keelic pulled off the neural interface so he could see Mr. Hallod, and found that a crowd was flowing onto the bridge—all the leaders from the council meeting down the hall, including the planetary steward.

Las, said Mr. Hallod. Begin transmitting the package. Captain, the fleet from Deepholm will be here momentarily. I suggest you lower the shield. Even with the data we’re sending, it will be a job convincing—

Captain, interrupted Las.

Keelic jammed on the neural interface.

Beyond the planetary minefield, battle groups were appearing in waves. Within a minute Keelic’s observation probes reported twenty-two thousand ships. Advance elements began vectoring in. He brought all torpedo tubes up to full power, and charged the particle cannon and beam weapons.

Keelic, said Mr. Hallod’s calm voice beside him. They aren’t here for us.

As com patterns and energy signatures were classified, Las tagged the incoming ships as Alliance Defense League vessels. Keelic overlaid the system map with the escape routes through the minefield that they’d plotted as a contingency, and watched as Las revised the plots based on ADL fleet disposition. The options narrowed as the ADL scanned the minefield and adjusted formations.

Keelic, repeated Mr. Hallod.

Keelic ignored him, remembering the desperate battle to fight his way free of the planetary minefield the last time—torpedoes a swarm, blooms of plasma obscuring his field of view, the ship shuddering under the impact of the new Quat-lat Kay-ku weapons.

Still gentle, Mr. Hallod said, As we planned, Captain. Lower the shield.

Mr. Hallod looked to Thotti.

The alien stopped managing the neural interface, and the tactical field went blurry. Keelic pushed the interface away. Keeping his eyes closed, he let his friend soothe his wild emotions. After a second, he nodded.

Las said, Shield is down. De-powering weapons.

Taking a deep breath, Keelic opened his eyes and looked into the holo pit. The ADL fleets were entering the outer fringe of the minefield, keeping their speed down. A cloud of small targets flashed into space ahead of destroyers leading the charge.

Ship-killers inbound, announced Las.

Keelic looked over at Mr. Hallod. The Pathfinder was watching the advance of the ADL in the holo pit. Keelic could see his mentor thinking, and what he thought was not good. Keelic’s eyes widened. The ADL didn’t believe the information package! He reached up for the neural interface and met Mr. Hallod’s gaze.

Mr. Hallod said, You know what’s at stake. I trust you both. He turned from the Command chair, and his voice filled the room. The ADL is not responding to our hails. Council members, find a seat or clear the bridge.

Keelic barely heard him, immersing himself in the tactical situation.

Las?

Yes, Captain?

Go.

The display whirled as Las spun the ship, and a body-numbing hum filled the room as full power flowed into the nominal-space engines. The planet loomed large as they dove right past it, skimming the upper atmosphere. The maneuver pulled a gasp of surprise from those around the bridge. Keelic grinned, and zoomed out the display.

Over half of the ADL fleet was now within the anti-luminal minefield where all ships were limited to a top speed well below light speed. Mr. Hallod had correctly predicted the ADL’s fire superiority tactical approach for engaging a dreadnought-class battleship like the Revenge. With the planet as a shield and the fleet’s maneuver speed limited, their numbers mattered less now. And Keelic had arranged another advantage.

At a signal from Las, the remaining planetary defense satellites powered up and opened fire. Ship-killer missiles detonated by the hundreds under the defense satellite barrage. The satellites walked their fire outward, detonating missiles in a rolling wave. Keelic accelerated into the plasma blooms of their annihilation, pushing the ship right to the edge of speed that would set off the anti-luminal mines. Shock waves buffeted the battleship, slamming it about in gut-wrenching swerves. Las held course and shot out of the boiling plasma, emerging in the outer minefield between two ADL battle groups. Her shield had survived the sun-hot plasma storm of the ship-killer detonations, but was now a ravaged dark gray.

Though the defense platforms had stopped firing the moment all the ship-killers were destroyed, the ADL fleet continued pouring fire into the satellites in rippling waves of torpedoes threaded by lancing beams. The ADL seemed intent on destroying the satellites completely, again as Mr. Hallod predicted. Their focus on the satellites granted Las precious seconds as she sailed for the edge of the minefield.

Recovering from her unexpected survival and appearance among them, the ADL swung their fire to Las in a show of fine coordination and accuracy.

Holding his breath, Keelic watched as his point defenses ripped into the incoming fire, filling space with varicolored chaos. ADL beam weapons cut through the explosions and slashed at his ship. Las rolled to distribute the strikes over greater shield area. Warnings flowed across Thotti’s console as he exceeded all tolerances to keep the weakened shield intact. Keelic looked down, checking fire rates and power projections. Many of the ADL beam weapons were as powerful as their own, which was amazing given how small the ADL warships were compared to the Revenge.

The ADL ships had all flipped end for end, and were boosting at maximum nominal output to accelerate after the Revenge, but Las was leaving them behind. Despite the expanding distance, thousands of long-range weapons continued to tear at her.

Keelic sat forward, eyes on the shield indicators, measuring their decline against a countdown to the point where the ship could go translight. They weren’t going to make it.

Experience and training came to the fore, and he cried, Las, hit them! Make ’em fall back!

The ship surged forward as dense-matter torpedoes launched from her aft accelerators. Twenty of the largest ADL vessels staggered as a single, massive pockmark appeared on their shields. Their beam fire flickered out as energy diverted to shields and inertial integrity.

Seconds before the Revenge reached mine-free space, alarms wailed as an aft shield projector overloaded. Beams ripped into the ship. Keelic took control, flipping the twelve-kilometer-long vessel end for end to face the ADL as the fleet flowed up through the minefield in pursuit. Las cut the nominal engines as he did so, and they coasted backward toward free space.

Keelic targeted the closest ADL battleship, opening a direct hail at the same time, and said angrily, I’m not here to fight, but this is to let you know I’m serious.

He fired one of the main battery torpedoes.

Keelic, no! cried his mother.

The torpedo, vectored to miss the vessel, cut a swath through its shield, opening it up like a knife wound.

Keelic let his targeting systems play over the naked, unprotected vessel, then said, Translight.

Las spun them around, and went superluminal.

A translight probe launched through the ship’s translight barrier showed that a few hundred ADL vessels had leapt to pursue, but most of the ADL fleet remained stuck within the anti-luminal minefield.

The pursuit dropped out of translight, giving up the chase. Keelic collapsed back into the Command chair. Thotti hopped over and landed on him with bright victory colors. Keelic hugged him fiercely. They relaxed, leaning into each other, and watched as the system’s gas giant approached. Las dropped to nominal speed and settled in above the north magnetic pole, using the planet’s mass and powerful magnetic field to mask their position. It didn’t hurt that a wide debris field remained in orbit from the pirate fleet Keelic had engaged here.

He brought up the ship schematic and winced at the damage the ADL beams had done. Six strikes had made it through, and one had penetrated over a hundred meters into the hull, just missing an aft torpedo tube.

Las, was anyone back there?

No sir, all civilians are secure in the ship’s command core.

Keelic flew through the damaged areas virtually, augmented with actual visuals where available. The edges of the wounds still glowed. It reminded him of the very first battle he’d witnessed on the flight to Ermol with his family.

Thotti flashed him a view of the bridge. Everyone was looking at him. Waiting for him. Reluctantly, he pushed off the neural interface.

No one spoke, not even Mr. Hallod, who was looking at Keelic with an expression of shock, admiration, and concern. His mother’s eyes were a little wild, her breathing fast and shallow. Keelic looked away. Seeing her like that smothered the thrill of their escape. He glared at the upper ring of bridge consoles where the members of the Planetary Council were recovering. Two bristled in response, but none of the others would meet his gaze. The planetary steward’s eyes were lidded as he watched Keelic, but there was sweat dripping down his face, and Thotti let Keelic know the man was frightened. And violently angry.

Okay, watch him, thought Keelic.

Blue affirmation.

Captain, said Las. We are receiving a hail. Origin vectors to Ermol.

Play it.

"Commander of the vessel identified as Revenge, said a man with hard eyes and a clipped voice. I am Admiral Bensk of the Alliance Defense League. I am prepared to discuss terms for your surrender."

Before anyone else could respond, Keelic said, Are you stupid? I could have killed you. But I didn’t! I told you who we are. We are not pirates, so don’t come after me. I know how to fight way better than they did.

Mr. Hallod suppressed a grimace, and raised a finger to indicate to Las that he wished to respond.

He said in a formal tone, "Admiral Bensk, I am Finder Charles Hallod of the Pathfinders of the Core. You received my full authentication with our transmission. You have attacked a Pathfinder vessel as well as an independent Announcer in their home matrix. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances. We are willing to allow all forms of necessary validation, including hosting an away party from your fleet. By now your Announcers will have summarized the package we transmitted. Keelic Travers has defeated Jaw Taka-ta-Kua and captured the Death Cloud, now named the Revenge. He deserves a hero’s welcome."

There was a long pause, longer than transmission delay warranted.

The admiral said, Pathfinder Hallod, planetary piracy must be investigated to the full extent of the Interstellar Code. Please return to Ermol so that we may begin. If we verify your claims, you will be free to go.

Keelic took a breath to blast the admiral, but Mr. Hallod cut him off with a gesture.

The Pathfinder’s demeanor was hard as he touched a com panel and said, Admiral, analyze the package. You have four hours. He cut the connection. To Keelic he said, Captain, we should move the ship. They will have vectored our transmission.

Keelic nodded. Las, take us out to the cometary band. Find something for us to hide behind.

Aye, Captain.

Mr. Hallod, said the planetary steward, you can’t be serious. We must return to Ermol. We cannot disobey a senior official of the ADL!

When Mr. Hallod simply looked at him, the steward added, My people want to go home.

That can be arranged, replied the Pathfinder. Now, if the council will excuse us, I wish to consult with the captain.

Keelic made a point of opening the bridge doors. The steward’s face reddened. He strode out, pulling the rest of the council along with him, except for one man dressed in expensive ship-silks and walking with a slight limp. The man stepped down into the Command well, strode up to Keelic, and bowed.

I am Ale Harcourt. I owe my life to you.

The statement was true, but Keelic blushed to hear it and couldn’t keep back a shy grin at the recognition.

Ale glanced into the holo pit’s view of the system, and said, Were I thirty years younger, I’d ask to accompany you wherever it is you are going, because it’s going to be a deep, cold ride. But my deep sailing days are past. He met Keelic’s gaze. Should you need anything, my accounts are live on most worlds. Give your name, and every local asset I have will be at your command.

Stunned, Keelic couldn’t muster a reply.

Ale bowed again, nodded to Mr. Hallod, then followed after the rest of the council.

Keelic’s father came in looking over his shoulder at the departing council. I saw what you did, Keelic. Amazing. So what do we do now? I think the steward is about to go nova. He walked over to the Navigation seat and put a hand on his wife’s shoulder.

Keelic shut the bridge doors, and with a glance asked Mr. Hallod to do the talking.

The Pathfinder said, We’ve given Admiral Bensk four hours to realize that he is not the dominant power in the system.

Keelic’s mother looked up. He’s not? All those ships. We almost didn’t . . .

Her husband took her hands and said, Sarah, that’s because Keelic didn’t fight. That was the plan. No ADL losses.

She nodded, but looked confused, and vulnerable.

Rage crimsoned up within Keelic. This wasn’t his mother. She was so much stronger than this. What had Jaw done to her?

A sudden urge to find and destroy all the pirates spurred him to ask, Las, any pirates in combat range?

Yes, Captain, I am tracking one vessel that is drifting within a cometary cloud sixteen light-minutes away.

Destroy it.

Aye, Captain.

Keelic’s parents looked at him in alarm.