Stellar Dust 7 - Orbital Maneuvers by Isaac Orr

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He hadn't been expecting this turn of events and he didn't like being this disorganized. He ran through the situation in his head. Delta 2 was the only inhabited rock in this system that he knew of. Making planetfall there probably wasn't the best idea though. It was likely that the Anomaly would signal ahead and Loramy would have someone on his payroll waiting or watching.

Stryler watched behind him and ahead as his fighter sped on towards Delta 2. There wasn't any sign of a response from the Anomaly yet and he was building a good lead. That made him feel a little more secure.

Elenia should still be on Delta 2. If he could reach her, that could be a way out of this mess. Loramy and his agents wouldn't have any idea about her as far as he knew, so her ship should be able to come and go from Delta 2 without anyone taking notice.

Stryler mentally requested a connect to her apartment by name and location. The ship informed him that it was able to make the connection. The fighter didn't have the ability to use the faster than light message relay network so his only option was to leave a message which would be broadcast to Delta 2 and arrive there in a couple of hours. Any response that Elenia might send would take another couple of hours to reach him unless he was closer to Delta 2 when he crossed its path. It wasn't ideal but it was the best method of reaching help that he had at hand.

He had to break teleconnect to record the message. The encryption system was very good so he wasn't too worried about eavesdroppers. He recorded a brief transmission explaining the situation and giving Elenia a set of orbital vectors around Roberts V Delta, the planet of which Delta 2 was a moon. He planned to hide on the far side of the planet from both Delta 2 and the Anomaly where hopefully Elenia would be able to pick him up. Based on the fighter's stores and energy supply he had between twenty-four and forty-eight hours of waiting time. If she hadn't shown by then he'd need to come up with another plan.

The Anomaly was about twenty light minutes behind him when Stryler detected a reaction to his escape in the form of two fighters speeding away from the cruiser. They probably had him on scanners just as clearly as he had them. He re-engaged teleconnect and he could feel their presence and the more distant Anomaly. He was at full speed and they were in exactly the same equipment as he was, so it was unlikely that they would gain any ground on him unless he slowed.

Roberts V Delta was still barely more than a bright twinkle against the darkness of space, but with the augmented abilities of the fighter's navigation systems Stryler was able to make a very slight course adjustment. He would need to slow down eventually to go into orbit around the planet, but he had a plan for that. It was a fairly standard maneuver, but it was standard precisely because it worked and it was difficult to counter. As long as Loramy didn't have anyone up ahead waiting for him, it should work.

Over the next hour and a half Stryler closely monitored the position of the fighters behind him.