Project Faith

Chapter 16

After spending several hours in the jump, the ship arrived in Bradist's space. The crew would soon learn if all of their efforts were worth it. Vlad pulled up the space chart of this sector. The crew took pride in being a selected number of humans and shavili to venture to this area of space. Before Vlad could set a course for the listing post on Xaraz, a series of loud beep caught the crew off guard. Simona was at her station checking on the ship's status. Her eyes widened as she noticed what was going on.

"Ma'am, we have a weapon lock on us," Simona altered.

"Screens up?" Lydia asked.

"Yes, ma'am. The stealth system is still engaged."

"Evasive maneuvers," Lydia ordered to Vlad. "Simona, ready weapons."

Vlad's eyes narrowed and his smile widened as he got ready to show the Bradits what this ship could do. "Acknowledge."

Another alter went off, this one was more settle then the last one. Piet informed Lydia. "We're being hail."

"Open a channel," Lydia said with a very cautious tone.

"What are you doing here, Popovo?" The computerized voice asked. "You are early for your shipment."

Vlad laughed. "Are we being attacked by robots?"

"No stupid," Piet answered. "It's the translator."

The modern translators, including personal communicators, had a more natural speaking voice. It matched the tone, pitch, and speed of the speaker. Drilli, who had a more rough and growling sound, the translator would reflect that voice. The Nessians had a more monotone voice, the translator would pick that up as well. So, it was easy for the listener to know if the speaker was human, nessians, drilli, et cetera with no problem. The prototype only had the computerized voice, which gave the speaker a robotics sound.

"Lydia," Piet said. "The translator gives off a strong signal that is not masked by our stealth system. This is how they are tracking us."

"That's not good," Lydia said.

"I think it was done by design," Piet stated. "It was a way for them to keep tabs on us all the time." He paused. "You might want to respond before they get trigger happy."

"We have a special shipment of Klexax," Lydia said, "which I'm eager to sell."

"Really? We trade with the shavili for Klexax."

"Some of my nessians friends located a new source. I can beat any price that the purple bitches give you."

"Interesting." There was a short pause. Lydia wondered if her buff worked. "Proceed to your location, Captain Baka out."

"Thank you, captain." Lydia signaled Piet to close the channel. "Keep the translator on until further notice."

"Got it," Piet replied.

"How long before we reach Xaraz?" Lydia directed her question to Vlad.

"About three hours."

"That can be a very tense three hours," Faith added, "with the bradist tracking us."

"It isn't ideal, Faith," Lydia said. "But it is necessary for now. We don't know much about the bradist. We don't know their defenses, their weaponry or anything. We have to play it carefully."

Faith let out a sigh. "I'm not comfortable with this."

"I understand your concerns," Lydia said. "I don't like it either, but for now it is our best plan." Lydia looked at Simona. "Keep an eye out. I don't want any surprises."