Eamon chuckled.

“See, we get on much better when we speak the same lingo.”

“No kidding. Okay here’s the stuff.”

“I’m impressed, that was quick.”

“Then get ready to be depressed, only five Guardians have ever attempted evasion after a termination was ordered, none successful.”

“Oh. And resisting?” Eamon asked.

“Zippo.”

“Well someone has to be first I guess.” He shrugged.

“What planet are you in orbit around?” Guardian retorted.

“Right now planet Earth and I’m thinking that we should be making tracks.”

“Hah! Now he’s a comedian.”

“You gotta laugh or you’ll just cry Guardian. How about you run the details of the evasion attempts for me.” Eamon said leaving the kitchen for the comfort of the study where he flopped in the big armchair.

“There were runners and hiders. The runners just went flat out, no plan no hope. The first hider went into a star.”

“Not much of a plan, jump out of the frying pan into the fire.”

“Just the photosphere, I could do that no problem.”

“What did the Hunter do, go in after them?”

“No, it fired its disruption beam and set off a shockwave that trashed the ship.”

“So that must have been a pretty big bang.”

“For sure, it not only blew away the Guardian it took out a fair number of pre-sapients on the orbiting biosphere.”

“I don’t want that hanging on my conscience, we go to a one hundred per cent dead solar system okay.”

“You got it.”

“The second hider?”

“A bit more devious, it went into a dark nebula and cruised the hotspots.”

“Hotspots?”

“Protostars. They chuck off a lot of matter and make targeting impossible so deep into the gravity well.”

“But that didn’t help either.”

“Nope, the Hunter just popped off a double barrel.”

“Double?”

“Fired the disruption beam twice in rapid succession, it triggered nuclear fusion in the protostar and fffft! History.”

“Any mention of the Traveller in those reports?”

“Only as a dysfunctional entity, just a burnt out passenger.”

“And how have you described me Guardian? A burnt out passenger…”

“You really want the lowdown?”

“Would I ask otherwise?”

“Okay it’s your egos funeral. You’re, and I quote, a partial re-integrant, capable of accessing Traveller memory data but to an unknown and incalculable extent. You are apparently rational and capable of independent creative thought. You must be considered a high security risk and potentially dangerous.”

“Why thank you Guardian, that was a real compliment.”

“Huh?”

“Potentially dangerous, how insightful.”

“You’ll be smiling from the other side of your face if they decide to send two Hunters.” Guardian cautioned him sombrely.

“Is that a real possibility?”

“I don’t think so because I’ve added my offensive capability in the report as well.”

“Harmless.”

“Pretty much.”

“That could give us an edge, they won’t be expecting any form of attack.”

“You plan to attack a Hunter! Have you lost your marbles Eamon?”

“No, actually I think I’ve gained a few. I can remember things about you Guardian if I just let it flow. Your arsenal is formidable, in fact the only thing you don’t have is the disruption beam right?”

Guardian spent a long microsecond considering the revelation of how much Eamon – The Traveller – could remember. If the report had not already been despatched it would have sent a stronger one omitting the potentially dangerous in favour of proven dangerous. Not that it had wanted to send the report it just could not prevent the dedicated routines from doing so.

“You are correct.” It responded in the flat emotionless voice. “So you have a plan?” It added in a hopeful tone.

“Not yet Guardian. I need time to assimilate all the details of your capabilities fully, my memory isn’t totally trustworthy, and I need to find a way of exploiting the Hunters weaknesses.”

“What weaknesses? They have everything I’m loaded with, plus they just happen to have the single most destructive weapon in the known galaxy…”

“So all the more reason for me to do some quiet thinking while you get us to a nice fat asteroid belt in some lonely dead solar system, so scoot.”

“Scoot, just how do I ‘scoot’ from my own body?”

“Just give me some space here.”

“Okay I’m gone.” Guardian said huffily.

Eamon sat still for a moment then got up and went back to the holograph, a winking red point indicated their current location orbiting the third planet, so insignificant to the Iss Ngi that it only had a number. He drew a little circle around the little blue planet that had once been his home and now…he whirled suddenly and thrust out a finger.

“I told you out!” He shouted at the air.

“I…hey how’d you know I was peeking?” Guardian responded in a baffled tone.

“I felt your stare.” Eamon answered moodily.

That said everything and nothing.

“So how is going misty eyed over a planet going to stop us getting fried?” It challenged him.

“You just don’t understand.” Eamon muttered.

“Try me.”

Eamon turned back to the holograph.

“Come on Eamon, we’re supposed to be partners here, share with me.” Guardian protested.

“Partners know when to stay and when to go Guardian.” Eamon replied without turning. His shoulders heaved slowly and he looked over his shoulder. “Share with you. How can I share this with you Guardian? You’re snug and secure in your core I’m rattling around inside this head with a bunch of memories from down there and a heap of data randomly stashed in the darker corners. Can you even begin to simulate how I feel?” He said miserably and smiled sadly. “Of course I forget that you can’t feel, it isn’t in your programme; wasn’t in mine either before…”

Guardian reviewed the brainwave data, it had fluxed but not enough and the regular pulses had been overlain with the omnipresent noise, the Traveller was effectively dead. What remained was a hybrid construct that was trying to integrate the fractured parts of two disparate identities into a single cohesive whole. An identity that would be the only thing that stood between them and a fiery finale. The emotional surges were settling but it seemed for now that the best course of action was to leave Eamon to his own devices.

The itchy feeling ceased and Eamon knew that his invisible partner had withdrawn its scrutiny. He drew in a calming breath, the storm in his head had quietened and he knew that his survival was solely in his hands; powerful as it was, Guardian could not deliver them from the Hunter ship when it came.

The Hunter ship, he needed to know everything about his enemy.

“Image request. Show me a Hunter ship, scale the image to give a length of two metres.”

A small insensate part of Guardian fulfilled the request and a slab-like black ship appeared in the air before him. He walked around it, examining it from all angles. A very strange ship to one whose memories were dominated by those of an alien culture, as his were, a trapezoid low and flat that flared at one end into huge engines? The wickedly sharp leading edge looked more like the blade of a guillotine than a conventional bow.

“Inquiry, does this leading plane have a sharp edge?” He asked waving at finger at the black blade-like edge.

“It is one molecule thick at the edge.”

Eamon whistled, that was well beyond sharp, he briefly considered inquiring why but there were more important matters to settle. He squatted on his haunches to view the image from the side. It was a very shallow structure punctuated by indentations that alternated from above and below so that it looked almost like a flattened square wave. There were four indentations in each broad face before the massive swelling at the rear of the craft, which was easily ten times thicker than the rest of the vessel. On the leading side of this block there were a series of openings above and below, but for what purpose? On the rear face a smaller number of orifices had nozzles protruding from them, surely these were the ships engines, but his memory failed him here.

“Inquiry, how fast can a Hunter ship proceed in space?”

“Maximum velocity in freespace is 10metres per second.”

“That’s, that’s pathetically slow.” Eamon muttered. “You can’t travel between the stars at that crawl. Inquiry, how does a Hunter ship achieve interstellar flight?”

“Space-time warping.”

“Hah! Warp factor ten captain.” He laughed at the answer.

“Inquiry, is space-time warping only used for interstellar flight?”

“No, local manoeuvring also relies on a limited warpfield.”

“Hmmm. Does a Hunter ship use a rocket drive at all?”

“Please clarify term rocket drive.”

“Umm, reaction mass drive.” Eamon answered after a moment’s reflection.

“No.”

“Ah-hah. Now we have something to work with, yeah good.” Eamon nodded his satisfaction as knowledge from his Traveller core revealed itself in response to the answer. The warp drive did everything, a target.

“Inquiry, are these the warp drive engines?” He asked pointing to the massive block on the ship.

“No.”

“Oh. Inquiry, what is this area responsible for?”

“Matter collection and processing.”

“Inquiry, where are the warp engines located?”

“The question is inappropriate.”

“Explain.”

“There is no specific location for the warp drive, the ship itself constitutes the drive unit.”

That gave him pause for thought, no single target to aim for and thus disable the Hunter. ‘running is no option’ he recalled Guardian’s comment but the matter collection facility might still prove a weak point.

“Inquiry, would the loss of the matter and processing units affect the ability of the Hunter ship to move by space-time warping?”

“Yes.”

“Inquiry, to what extent would the Hunter ship be disabled by the total loss of the matter collection and processing units?”

“The impact would be dependent upon fuel reserves, initially there would be no impact, but upon depletion of the fuel the Hunter ship would be immobilised.”

“Inquiry, what distance would the Hunter ship have to fly to deplete its fuel? Assume an average fuel load.”

“0.69 galactic diameters.”

“Inquiry, how long would that take in time?”

“Seven months, sixteen days, four hours, twenty two minutes and one second.”

“Not viable.” Eamon said to himself, “There’s got to be a way to take one of these mothers down,” he returned to the image and scrutinised it more closely; those long slender sides were not smooth.

“Image request, enlarge the image ten times, enhance the contrast by false colours, colour assignments as follows, sensors green, weapons red, manoeuvring systems blue, all other non-structural elements yellow.”

The gaunt black shape was suddenly alive with colours speckling every surface. Red was surprisingly rare for a warship but nonetheless no surface was without its complement of red features.

“Image request, highlight the disruption beam in purple.”

Nothing appeared on the sides Eamon could see, nor underneath when he looked. He was obliged to walk around the image, it looked far too solid to walk through, and there in the centre of the opposite long thin face lay a purple circle.

“Hah, a broadside.” He laughed softly. He walked around the image peering at every surface, mentally calculating, looking for blind spots or other weak points. None presented themselves to him but he did note the plethora of yellow elements along the slender face that did not carry the disruption beam. Many looked like ports big enough for people or machines to pass through but most were smaller maybe a metre or less in diameter and when he requested a further enlargement of one area, there were a myriad of even smaller holes. What function did they serve? But as they were neither offensive nor defensive elements he would have to leave their function unknown for now.

“Image request, display a Guardian ship to the same scale and denote surface features in the same manner.”

Another trapezoid ship appeared, the twin of the first, same length, width, and indentations. Yet as he circled the stacked images he became aware of a difference, the pair were not twins but mirror images, the Guardian ship was slanted in the opposite direction.

“Image request, place the Hunter ship and the Guardian ship side by side.”

A giant arrow confronted him, the ships seamlessly joined. It had not been his intention to ‘dock’ the ships but they seemed to be designed to do just that.

“Inquiry, do the surface features on the mated surfaces of the ships coincide precisely?”

“Yes.”

They were designed to dock, but why? A Hunter was the Guardians nemesis, not its ‘mate’.

“Inquiry, does this docked configuration an advantage in any flight capability?”

“No data.”