Duty and Obligation

by Sean Benjamin

  Holly smiled at her and bowed her head slightly. “You’re very kind.” She turned to Doc and Baby Doll. “Is this our newest member?”

  Doc took charge. “Yep, please take her with you and set up some living arrangements. She will work up here. I think a female med tech would be nice.”

  Holly nodded. “Make some of the women more comfortable for sure. She’ll live with the women log dogs. I’ll put her in the rack above me and get her fed. We’ll get the medical clothes squared away too.” She smiled at Doc and addressed her new charge. “Ready to roam?”

  Samantha nodded. She turned to Baby Doll. “Thank you.” Baby Doll smiled and nodded. Samantha turned to Doc Windsor. “Thank you.” Doc also smiled. “Of course.”

  Both Doc and Baby Doll thanked Holly as Samantha pivoted and departed with her. After the two departed, Doc turned to Baby Doll. “I see from the clothes that she was an inmate at the jail. Why is she here now?”

  “No other place to go, and we couldn’t leave her.”

  Doc nodded. He had plenty of jail time in his past so had an idea as to the conditions. He asked the standard question. “What was she in for?”

  “Murder,” Baby Doll replied.

  Doc smiled. “I like her already.”

  ~ ~ ~

  After Baby Doll and Samantha departed the bridge, Reed swung the command chair to bring Tactical into view. She had just finished sending her messages and looked up to see Reed regarding her. She regarded him back.

  After a few seconds, it became clear she wouldn’t speak, so he did. “Potenka is twenty-nine hours away at max speed. Lots of closer doctors.”

  She replied, “Not that many that are highly qualified to do limb attachments and none that are highly qualified to do limb attachments and will keep his or her mouth shut.” She paused and then continued as she knew her statement raised many questions. “Doctor Pierre Bergeron is on Potenka. He used to be a doctor on Bolindale decades ago. He was barred from practicing there due to his outspoken comments on the mining company’s way of doing business. He couldn’t make a living, and the authorities wouldn’t let him leave. You know of our beginnings and the attack on an ore processing plant.” Reed nodded. “Well, he is the one who did my face when nobody else would even talk to us. Years later, we got him off Bolindale and to Potenka. We got a few friends to invest in setting up his practice. He made it a success and now has a nice, quiet clinic, and they do limb attachments among other medical procedures. They are well known for their discretion. Cathy Putinsky and Doctor Bergeron know each other and will work together to keep this as low key as possible. It is a long trip to get there but Killian needs a left hand and Raferty needs part of his right thigh muscle replaced. Doctor Bergeron is the man who can do that and keep it in the family. No question he is the right guy for the job.”

  Mason gave a slight smile. “Good enough.” Then he silently watched her for a few seconds. He spoke softly. “I was worried. Radio chatter told me the attack had bogged down at first. I thought you might do something really brave… and really stupid.”

  Tactical shook her head. “Killian and Raferty did the really brave and really stupid things.”

  “If someone had to be really brave and really stupid, I’m glad it wasn’t you.”

  Tactical spoke with a slight laugh in her voice. “I promise to be really brave and really stupid next time.”

  Reed frowned. “Oh goody, something to look forward to.” He spun around in the chair.

  Chapter 20

  Nemesis took up a standard orbit at Potenka under the false name of MacGyver, a Clan class destroyer in the Edinburgh Navy. She immediately launched a shuttle with two passengers. Both were sedated and strapped to stretchers. The shuttle’s destination was New Beginnings, a clinic on the outskirts of the capital city of Aquaban. The clinic was owned and operated by Doctor Pierre Bergeron, an old friend of Flot 1. He would take care of the two wounded captains and keep it quiet. The shuttle landed on the roof shuttle pad. The clinic had four people there to transfer the patients to two floating patient tables. The transfer was smoothly done, and the party moved to the roof elevator. Once inside, the elevator moved down to the second floor. The shuttle departed quickly and returned to Nemesis. The pirate vessel immediately broke orbit to take the other wounded back to their own ships.

  Once on the second floor, the sedated patients were moved to an examination room. Doctor Pierre Bergeron did an examination of the wounds and took blood DNA samples to inject into the new hand being prepared for O’Hare and the new thigh muscle mass being prepared for Hawkins. He passed the DNA samples to an attending nurse who would take them to the cold unit where the body parts were being readied.

  Bergeron was grateful for the heads-up message from Tactical. It had allowed him time to work on the body parts needed and to assess treatment required. After the initial message from Predator, communication had been established with Nemesis, and messages and images had flowed between his clinic and the oncoming pirate ship. Much of the preliminary assessments and work were already completed before the ship’s arrival. He knew exactly the condition of his two patients and had already formulated a plan and a timetable for the medical work required. Bergeron stepped back from the newly arrived patients and ran through the procedures in his mind before turning to another doctor.

  “I see no surprises here. I think our plan is still viable.”

  The second doctor nodded and spoke. “The man first. He is the easiest and his muscle mass attachment will be ready first.” The doctor glanced down at his watch. It was five o’clock in the afternoon. “Assuming the DNA is injected into the replacement thigh muscle mass within the next few minutes, I think we can do the man first thing tomorrow morning, say eight o’clock, and the woman the afternoon of the next day.” The DNA injected into the new body parts needed time to spread within the replacement part. The larger the body segment or the more complicated it was, the longer for the DNA to indoctrinate the replacement.

  “I agree,” said Bergeron. “The replacement segments will be ready by then and the patients have no issues that would hold this up. Let’s do it on that timetable. Recover time for him should be quick. He will be limping around later tomorrow after the operation. She will need some days with the sonic chamber but should make a complete recovery.” The two doctors nodded to each other in agreement.

  The sonic chamber was officially known as a sonic rejuvenation chamber. This piece of equipment was fitted over the attached limb to help the healing process. It speeded up the joining of the new limb and reduced the chance of infection.

  As the doctors left the room, Bergeron remarked, “Let’s clean up the wounds for both patients while they are still sedated. We’ll let the sedatives wear off for the male and then do the mapping for him. We need to check pain levels too.”

  The surgical team cleaned the wounds of both patients. Particles of burnt tissue and muscle were removed, and the wounds were prepped to receive transplants. O’Hare was kept sedated, but they let the sedatives wear off for Hawkins in order to map his wounded leg and measure pain responses within the wound and the surrounding area. Three hours later, Hawkins’ sedative had worn off, and there were definitely pain levels to talk about. Hawkins became conscious and his leg throbbed. He lay on his belly as the clinic staff measured the pain level and the nerves originating the sensation. This was all part of mapping the damage done to the body so the microscopic repair work needed to integrate the replacement part would be at the right locations. After the mapping was complete, more pain medication was administered, and Raferty gratefully went unconscious. He remained that way through the night.

  Chapter 21

  Shane Delacruz flipped through his screens. Everything was going well. Shane now had seven warships and three freighters. That would get the job done. The light cruiser had not been identified yet, but it was clear she was headed to Libellule, one of the three inhabited planets in the New Brittany System. There was a small navy base there as
part of their spaceport so once she put in there she might stay awhile. Shane had to move now. Since the destination of the target was now known, Shane sent Steppenwolf ahead to Libellule to scout the port for likely threats. He had the other two freighters move ahead of the light cruiser and aim for Libellule while keeping the Brie ship on their sensors.

  Steppenwolf had reported the light cruiser Musketeer was the only warship already in the port at Libellule. That was good from the standpoint that the light cruiser they were tracking here in space was either Fusilier or Chasseur. It was bad because Musketeer might be able to quickly pull out and move to assist her sister ship once the battle was joined. Shane had to modify his plan to account for a potential threat from this second combatant. At first, he wanted to hit the unknown light cruiser and run from Musketeer. Then he reconsidered. If they could destroy their unknown target quickly, they could turn on Musketeer and get her also. It was reasonable to assume some of her people would be ashore and left behind as she rushed to the aid of her sister ship, so she might be missing key members of her crew. In addition, Musketeer had never been in a serious space fight. She had had scrapes with various ships while carrying out bounty missions for her government but had never seen anything like what would be coming at her now. Shane mentally shrugged. Why not? He knew his other captains would go for it, and this opportunity might never come around again. If these two light cruisers were heavily damaged or destroyed, the third light cruiser would rarely leave port again. The three musketeers would be finished as viable Brie assets. Shane knew it was added risk, but it would be worth it.

  Delacruz quickly reviewed the maneuvering scheme in his head. He had split his force into three pairs of ships to close on their prey from several directions at once. Every direction would be covered and the lone leftover ship would be placed between the Brie warship and the direct route to Libellule. It would look like the best way out for their quarry. The pirate ships would all be squawking acceptable IFFs and would not be coming directly at the light cruiser but would be cutting down the distance gradually from a variety of angles. Sensors reached out two hours of max flight time so the Bries would get ample warning that ships seemed to be converging on them. To the light cruiser’s captain, it would look like the ships were trying to be sneaky about it, but it would be clear, as time passed, what was happening. The Brie warship would do course changes as it moved toward Libellule and, once the closing pirate ships changed course to keep closing the distance, the situation would be obvious. The light cruiser would run for Libellule. By this time in the chase, the port would be approximately four hours away at top speed. As she closed on the spaceport, she would also find she was closing on two freighters headed in the same direction. The lone pirate vessel blocking her way would be just beyond the two merchant ships nearer to Libellule. The cruiser would continuously reduce the gap on these slow merchant vessels as the pirate ships closed on her from different directions. It would turn into an obvious chase then—the light cruiser racing for Libellule and the pirates closing the gap as fast as they could. As the situation unfolded, it would become clear to the Brie commander that he can use the two freighters to disrupt the firing solution of the single pirate ship blocking his way to safety. Therefore, the Brie warship would maneuver close to the two commercial ships to complicate life for the pirate ship blocking their way. Of course, the Brie captain would expect the two freighters to turn away from Libellule and get out of the line of fire as soon as it became obvious what the light cruiser was doing, but the Brie captain would take whatever help Providence sent his way, no matter how fleeting. The Brie ship would continue closing on the two freighters and maneuvering to keep the freighters between her and the pirate ship in front of them for as long as possible.

  Delacruz brought up his intel screen. Nothing had changed. Steppenwolf reported all was the same in the spaceport at Libellule. Musketeer was secured to a floating berth. It would take time to get underway. Shane wanted the battle to be fought outside of Libellule airspace. Such airspace was defined as all the area within sensor range. This fight needed to take place beyond Libellule’s sensors. He knew his force could make that happen.

  The timing for the operation had been set and the pirate force had divided into three pairs of two ships each. Cottonmouth was the odd ship out. Llewellyn Terrant would take her to cover the approach to Libellule and stay in front of the two freighters going in that direction. The three pairs now maneuvered independently as they began arcing around the given position of the light cruiser while staying far out of sensor range. They had eight standard hours and nineteen minutes to get into position. At that time all ships would turn inbound on the Brie light cruiser.

  The time dragged by uneventfully. As always, prebattle tension in each ship rose with each passing hour. All crews wanted the battle to start. There was no avoiding this fight so might as well get it over with. The wait time just allows the imagination to run wild, and the imagination could always come up with something new and different to consider.

  Flint Colfax, captain of Corsair, wandered around his ship, talking to the crew and taking the measure of their mood. He had never done that before, but it was a course of action suggested by Killian O’Hare, and she had not been wrong yet. Flint needed to get out and move about. It saved him from thinking too much. Before now, he and his crew had not known what battle would be like. Then came the Electra System fight. Never could he have imagined the chaos, destruction, and outright terror. The first casualty in a space battle was all that passed for normal. Craziness ruled supreme. He had been amazed he and Corsair had survived. He was sure it was due to luck and nothing he or his crew had actually done to increase their odds of survival. In truth, they had followed orders, usually belatedly, and had stayed in formation so as not to present a tempting target. It had worked. Or, maybe, it had been beginner’s luck. Either way, he’d take it.

  There were two differences this time around. One difference was this was a battle with one ship, not a full-on fleet action. The second difference was this one ship had special meaning for Corsair. If their target turned out to be Fusilier, and they took her down that would be the culmination of months of searching. Fusilier had destroyed their fellow ship, Redemption, and toasted the two escape pods as they abandoned ship. Flint Colfax had vowed to do the same to them if given the opportunity. That opportunity may be at hand now. Colfax found he was not as enthused about dishing out revenge as much as he thought he would be. Before he thought he would relish the moment. He would help kill the ship and then treat the inevitable escape pods in the way the Bries had taught them. In theory, it had seemed right and straightforward, but the time to indulge in theory was over. Reality was almost at hand, and reality is always messier than theory. He wanted the ship to be Fusilier so the quest would be over, but he found himself hoping Fusilier would just blow up and save him the decision. Right now, Colfax had no idea what he would do when the time came. He was sure he would get the opportunity to find out.

  The time oozed by and all ships turned toward the Brie warship as planned. They aimed for the projected location of the Brie warship, knowing sensors would give them an exact location soon enough. The noose was tightening on the unsuspecting target.

  The battle began just as predicted. The Brie captain noticed the net closing around his ship. She changed course and her pursuers changed course. After ten minutes, the light cruiser aimed directly at Libellule and went to military power. She was running. The pirates pursued. With their new Royal Navy engines, the pirates gained steadily on their prey. It soon became clear they would be in firing range before the Brie cruiser got into Libellule space.

  The light cruiser still had to contend with the lone pirate destroyer blocking the path to Libellule. She began maneuvering to keep the two conveniently available merchant ships between herself and the pirate vessel. The Brie plan became apparent. She would hide behind the two civilian ships as long as possible as she closed on the pirate. Once the two freighters got out
of the way, the light cruiser would overwhelm the destroyer as she sped by her and went for Libellule.

  As the cruiser drove at the two freighters and Cottonmouth just beyond them, the remaining six pirate ships closed on their prey. They would be at max range for missiles in ten minutes. The light cruiser was just on the edge of her missile range to the two freighters when those two ships turned to port and opened their cargo bay doors. One hundred and fifty missiles erupted at the Brie ship. The light cruiser immediately launched an offensive missile volley at the two freighters before switching to the defense. The Bries assumed their offensive missiles had a good chance of penetrating the freighters’ almost non-existent defenses.

  Cottonmouth was ahead of the two commercial ships so was well out of range of the Brie warship. However, she was well within range to support Dragon and Vampire. As the two missiles’ salvos merged at the midpoint of their flight, it became apparent the initial Brie shots were offensive missiles. Cottonmouth began firing interceptors in support of the freighters. The interceptors flew past the freighters and homed on the oncoming Brie missiles. The continuous stream of interceptors took out the single offensive volley from the cruiser. Cottonmouth moved toward the freighters and the enemy so her missiles would soon be in range of the Brie ship.

  The long-range firing gave the light cruiser several minutes to engage the incoming attack. She shot down the majority of the projectiles and only seventeen missiles impacted on several of her shields. Three got through and impacted the hull, resulting in minor damage. Despite the lack of results, the missile salvo accomplished its purpose. The light cruiser was forced to slow down to allow for maximum engagement time against the incoming volley and to execute defensive maneuvers. This delay allowed the other pirate ships to close the gap. As they got to max firing range, they sent a continuous barrage at the lone target. The Brie ship turned and ran directly at the two freighters with Cottonmouth just beyond them.