Pirate Stars

by Andrew van Aardvark

  "Good," the Pirate Chief said, punctuating the statement with yet another back slap. "Your participation is done for the next little while." He nodded to a pair of pirates who guided McKittrick to the front of the room near Jeannie where he could watch the remainder of the proceedings with her.

  After the shock of the Captain's and First Mate's murder, and the Engineer's defection they failed to make much impact on Jeannie emotionally. She watched as if from a distance through a thick pane of glass.

  Some of the crew were informed they would be slaves. Some were told they were mulch and shot on the spot. Contrary to what the Pirate Chief had suggested no more hostages were designated. Some few, mostly engineers or technicians, were given a chance to become freebooters themselves. None refused.

  Sheena was one of those designated a captive. It was some small relief in a pageant of horror.

  Finally, after all of the former crew had been either informed of, or suffered, their final fate the Pirate Chief took station at the front of the room.

  "Comrade McKittrick, one last task," he said turning to the engineer. "You must select a bedroom slave from among those available here." He handed the engineer a shiny steel chain formed into a noose at one end.

  "I think you'll find Bethany Wong," the Pirate Chief said pointing to thin young woman with blond hair, "quite suitable. She's a bit on the skinny side, but we have treatments for that. She's good material and your new mates Jack and Bob here will be happy to mentor you on how she should be properly trained."

  He grinned at the engineer who returned a tremulous smile. "Good?" asked the Pirate Chief. The engineer nodded. The Pirate Chief gave him a little shove and the engineer and his new friends shuffled off to collect the newly enslaved and distraught former spacer first class Wong. The engineer placed his metal noose around his former crew mate's neck and the accompanying pirates half lifted, half dragged the now practically catatonic woman away.

  "The rest of our new recruits will be tested and rewarded later," the Pirate Chief announced once the sad little procession had departed the room. You've all been assigned mentors, they'll help you get settled in.

  Once the defectors had left the captives were lead off one by one, and then finally the remainder of those who'd been made slaves.

  Only once all the rest of the former crew still living had gone did the Pirate Chief turn to Jeannie and say,"So that was your final good-bye to your former crew. Hope you enjoyed it."

  * * *

  The Pirate Chief was modestly pleased as he surveyed the blood, gore, and bodies filling the former passenger rec room of the ship that had been the Chang's Venture.

  It was to non-pirate sensibilities a shocking spectacle. A disgusting, depraved and deeply disturbing one. That being the point of the thing. That much had gone well.

  It was not all that had gone well.

  The initial stages of the trap for the Chang's Venture had been picture perfect. No long uncertain stern chase and no expensive and inconvenient damage to ships or their crews.

  His spies were telling him the SDF had not called off their anti-pirate campaign. That was a disappointment. Worse indications were they'd be patrolling the vicinity of his current location.

  It rendered the quick taking of his prey by means of stealth all that more fortunate. They'd have a window of vulnerability to detection while leaving the system, but it was a relatively short one. It'd be unusual bad luck if the SDF picked up their trail now.

  That was all to the good.

  The fighting that had ensued after the boarding parties had breeched the Chang's Venture incensed him. He'd gone to considerable lengths to ensure a quick cheap take over of the merchant.

  Even if he hadn't had other reasons he'd have shot Captain Lee for that alone.

  He wondered at the Chang's personnel policy that they'd retained an individual so lacking in insight and initiative. A person, who despite no doubt having better than average intelligence, acted so stupidly.

  Lee was supposed to have made certain the Chang girl was locked in her cabin. Failing that she should have ensured the girl was locked in place somewhere else. That the heir was in transit with her guard after a sparring session could be considered bad luck. Still it was a narrow window and luck, good and bad, affected everyone.

  How difficult would it have been to have detained the Chang girl on the bridge, encouraged her to return directly to her cabin, or conversely encouraged her to continue her sparring session a little longer? Failing that she could have sent an officer to detain the girl with some nonsense errand. In the event even that didn't work Lee should have managed to have informed the boarding party that the girl was loose with her guard and then kept track of her.

  Lee had failed to do any of that.

  The Pirate Chief had turned Lee with a combination of veiled threats and hints at reward. He'd compromised her by small steps and eventually she was in too deep to think she could come clean. He'd made no clear promises.

  Even pirates didn't like dealing with those who broke a clear promise for convenience's sake.

  How many brains did it take to figure out that pirates only valued current performance? How was it that Lee didn't realize she had to show outstanding performance as a promise of future value or her life was forfeit?

  The Pirate Chief paced the deck to work out his frustrations carefully avoiding gore and body fluids as he did so.

  He found himself looking at First Officer's Okoro's body. What a waste. Perhaps the foremost navigator of the current generation and almost as talented in all the other technical skills of a ship's officer. Her leadership issues could have been resolved with the proper mentoring, maybe a little psychological adjustment courtesy of the Doctor.

  If Lee had had just a little initiative she would have worked at preparing Okoro for her fateful decision ahead of time. It would have involved some risk but for Lee especially it would have been worth it.

  Lee had also failed to ingratiate herself with the Chang girl. A stubborn and prickly individual but still a young woman manifestly out of her depth. A patient and sympathetic older woman could have made herself a trusted, even beloved, adviser to the girl.

  If Lee hadn't proved useless except as a traitor, and Okoro and the Chang girl could have both been turned the Pirate Chief could have placed three agents in the highest ranks of the Chang trading clan. They'd have been invaluable.

  Particularly for his plan "B" should the SDF manage to stumble on his base.

  He had a secret network in place hidden on stations, ships and planets with legitimate governments that were recognized by, and more or less trusted by the Federation, and most importantly the SDF. His agents were either completely legitimate or else at worse petty criminals not worth any special attention from the authorities. He could vanish into that network at any time.

  He wished to do more than just save his own skin if it came to that. Currently his agents were in the main passive informers in strategic but not high level positions. If it was necessary to rebuild his criminal empire he'd need more active agents at higher levels.

  Developing some leverage on the Changs would be a good start.

  Ideally he'd somehow manage to compromise the Chang girl by pushing her into behavior she'd later not wish to have revealed. Scared for her life, with the example of her fellow officers and crew members before her, friendless, and in an environment he totally controlled she with some time and finesse ought to prove possible to manipulate.

  Harder than he'd have expected from what he'd heard. Although obviously in shock from his little ceremony, she'd not visibly broken down. That was fine he'd enjoy having a little bit of a challenge. Indeed it was important she be compromised but not broken if she was to be of the maximum of use to him.

  As a bonus the threat of harm to his daughter and only available heir held the promise of leading the clan head into acts he'd normally avoid. If all he did was ransom her that alone would be enough to compromise him. It was just a matter of fin
ding a tiny crack somewhere, everybody had them, then carefully applying leverage to widen it, until finally you cracked your target wide open.

  Given that he was having to suspend normal operations until the SDF had either given up and gone home, or they found his base and he had to implement plan "B", he had plenty of time free to work on the Chang girl's case.

  If he could somehow contrive to in the process provide some entertainment to occupy the attention of his idle pirates all the better.

  * * *

  Jeannie stared blankly at the bottom of the bunk space above her. The pirates had chosen a bottom grade economy passenger's cabin to keep her prisoner in.

  She'd been doing this for several hours. For the first couple of hours her stunned listlessness had been no act. She'd long considered herself rather too coldly logical and lacking the ability to empathize with others' emotions to a normal degree. She'd never before been so overwhelmed by grief and horror as to be unable to function.

  She had started to recover enough to think again, and she thought to act if opportunity presented itself. Her first thought was that the pirates had no need to know that.

  They could imprison her body, but they could not control her mind.

  Her thoughts were her own. She intended to keep it that way. She continued to stare at the blank surface above her as if she was still too emotionally crushed to move or think.

  The pirate's idea of a welcoming ceremony had been shocking, and it had been discouraging.

  It had also been educational. Her goal had been to gather information. She must not lose sight of that goal. She must take inventory of the facts she had, she must use them to build a picture of the situation, and finally she must use that picture to formulate a plan.

  First thing, an inventory of what she knew. It'd all been too much to absorb while it was happening, but now she had the time to tease out the meaning of what she'd experienced.

  One thing beyond doubt the pirates were ruthless and cruel. They did not feel themselves bound by any normal morality. They were also disciplined. She hated to think ill of the dead but Captain Lee, and Chief McKittrick for that matter, had been completely wrong to believe otherwise.

  Their implicit model of one "good" sort of character both moral and effective had been completely invalidated. The pirates quite obviously could manage to be both moral monsters willing to indulge their most animalistically base urges and highly disciplined and effective soldiers in how they achieved their goals.

  They valued her apparently because of the prospect of a hefty ransom. They were also determined to keep her under control and were using both physical and psychological means to that end.

  The whole obscene welcoming ceremony had been an exercise in psychological warfare. It had been planned with as much careful attention to detail as any military campaign. That alone suggested the pirates perceived a need for it.

  It might look like the pirates had the physical means to easily keep their captives under control, but the pirates themselves must have doubts if they were putting such effort into getting the psychological upper hand.

  That was encouraging.

  Certain other details didn't entirely add up.

  Someone in her crew had betrayed them. Someone had tipped off the pirates about the Chang's Venture's time of departure and its expected route. That someone had also manipulated Jeannie into doing exactly what the pirates wanted.

  It'd be nice to blame McKittrick who'd already shown himself willing to betray the clan, but it couldn't have been him. He'd not been privy to the navigation information, and he'd not had any influence over Jeannie's decision to hide in the gas giant's rings. A decision which had proven to be very convenient for the waiting pirates.

  Captain Lee and First Officer Okoro were the only candidates for that bit of treason.

  There was no sure way of knowing which one of them it had been. It was even possible they'd both been moles. Jeannie didn't think so. Jeannie didn't think Okoro had been a traitor.

  It only left Lee.

  It would explain both her surprise at her execution and the Pirate Chief's remark about not being able to trust her. It left open questions about both why she'd betray the clan after long years of apparently loyal service, and about whether the pirates might have some twisted code regards loyalty and being trustworthy.

  If, no when, she returned to Pedlar's Haven she'd have to go over Lee's past with fine tooth comb. There'd be necessary lessons to learn there. The insight into the thinking of the pirates was likely of more immediate significance. Right now she couldn't think of what that significance might be, but she'd keep it in mind as a potentially important puzzle piece.

  It wouldn't help her escape. Not that she could see and escape, somehow and soon, whatever the risk, had to be her first priority.

  At some point the pirates would realize the Chang clan had a policy against paying ransoms and that her father would stick to it.

  At some point the pirates would begin to put pressure on her father by torturing and dismembering her. She had no doubt they would apply considerable imagination to the task of making her life a horror that would tug hard at her father's heart strings.

  She had no intention of waiting around for that.

  Dying in an escape attempt would be preferable.

  When and how? Before they transferred her to purpose built facilities on their base for certain. Ideally when some portion of the crew was otherwise occupied. If no opportunity presented itself earlier, as close to their time of arrival at the pirate base as possible.

  A certain delay to allow the pirates to become jaded with and dismissive of her would be good. Guard duty was always boring. She'd be at pains to make it so until she was ready to strike. A visit to the washroom would be ideal. It would mean more guards to take out, but also that they'd be overconfident.

  Scalding water followed by full out physical attack and a quick seizure of weapons, she'd overpower one of them and attempt to take out all the guards before they could raise the alarm.

  She'd then storm the bridge and start blowing hatches with her owner override codes. There would be collateral damage. It couldn't be helped.

  It was a plan. It might even work.

  * * *

  The Casablanca arrived in system SC10184 little more than an hour before the pirates exited it.

  Torson wasn't sure if that was good luck or bad.

  Bad luck certainly for the ship apparently taken prize by the pirates. Some of her crew no doubt had died during the pirate attack. Given the manner in which pirates treated their captives some of the still living might be envying their deceased former colleagues.

  It was good luck for the SDF. As much as they would have enjoyed catching the pirates and saving a more or less honest merchant from attack, they wanted to find the hidden pirate base even more.

  "You must be very happy, Lieutenant Torson," the Commodore said to him. "Not only has your guess that there more pirates out here been vindicated, but we've also got a clear lead on finding their base."

  "I was worried they might just keep their heads down and wait the storm out, sir," Torson replied looking around. There was little doubt the bridge crew was excited and would be reporting this conversation to all their shipmates. Better make this good.

  "You think they might have hidden their base better than the other bands did?" the Commodore asked.

  "No real evidence, just speculation, but it would make sense."

  "You doubt our search procedures, Sven?"

  "No, sir. They're as good as they reasonably can be. Doesn't mean a clever lot of pirates couldn't find a way to hide. A lot of rocks out there they could be hiding under. Space is big. The other pirates were lazy and arrogant. This new bunch, they seem different."

  "Not as brave and ready to fight, maybe? A bit easier to take than the others I'd think."

  "I don't know, sir. Smarter, cleverer and more dangerous maybe. We don't have much real data. The rumors paint them as very
vicious."

  "I think our marines will put an end to that."

  "Yes, nothing tougher than a marine. Still it takes the navy to get them to where they're going."

  "Don't think the Casablanca and Daisy are up to the job?"

  "Probably are, but going in blind, sir, I don't think I'd recommend chancing it."

  "Still it's not like we have much choice if we don't want the trail to go cold is it? We have to follow with what we have or likely lose them."

  "True. I'm not saying we shouldn't follow them, sir. We've had a stroke of luck and we've got to seize it. We let them get more than a few hours ahead of us and we'll lose them. No doubt there."

  "But?"

  "But we're going to have to be careful. Stay alert. There's a good chance they'll lay up hidden in a system to make sure they're not being followed."

  "Not so sure. With a prize in hand they likely will want to get back to their base wherever it may be as fast as possible. Get their prisoners secured before their initial shock wears off. Two ships short handed with prisoners aboard I'm guessing they don't want a fight."

  Torson paused to think before answering. Commodore Zanjani had a very good point. Also it was true that if they were too careful they could easily lose the scent of their prey. "It does make sense, sir. I really can't argue the point. It is my job to lay out all the possibilities for you."

  "I appreciate that Lieutenant," the Commodore replied. "I also think you've been doing that job in a superb fashion. We wouldn't be here at all if you hadn't already convinced me of that. On the other hand having been first a technician and then mostly in intelligence I think maybe you're used to having more information than is practical to expect in many situations. Sometimes you just have to make a decision despite not having all the facts you'd like to."

  "I understand that, sir," Torson said. "I'm afraid it's not logical, but I just have a bad feeling about this group of pirates. Practically speaking I'd like to make two recommendations."

  "Shoot. You know I'm listening."

  "Yes, sir. First I think it's critical to try to concentrate all our forces as quickly as possible."