The ambush had been well planned, and well executed. Any other crew would have lost the battle immediately and probably have inflicted few, if any, losses on the ambushers. When the ship lost main drive power to a hit in the generator pod, Johnny knew that despite the best efforts of Willi, Sydney, and Clyde, the shuttle would be boarded within a short time, despite the fact that only half a dozen of the attackers had escaped Clyde’s weapons.
“Sis,” Sydney said suddenly. “I want you in a suit and on the back side of that asteroid with all our oxygen. They are not going to get their hands on you.”
“No way, Syd! We still have our small arms. We’ll…”
“Willi, you’ve heard what happens to women that fall into the hands of the pirates. I’m not going to let…”
“There is one other way,” Johnny said softly. “Drift us to the asteroid like he said. I have a fighter aboard. I can use it to take out the rest of them that Clyde did not get.”
“What? A fighter! What the hell are you talking about?” Willi was glaring at Johnny.
“Not enough time to explain. Just drift us past the asteroid with the maneuvering engines. They won’t try to board until they know Clyde is out of weapons or power. There’s enough time for me to assemble the fighter and get it launched.”
“You’re crazy!” Willi said.
“He’s Johnny Oneshot, Willi,” Sydney said, looking back at the slender blue-eyed man. “She’s my sister… whatever it takes, man… Could she fly it and get away?”
Johnny nodded. “Yes. That will do. I’ll just have to destroy the other one.”
“You’re telling me there are two fighters on this shuttle?” Willi asked.
That sardonic grin was turned to her again. “Only one is fueled and armed.”
“Holy Mother! Fueled and armed! On my shuttle! You know what could happen if we took a hit in the cargo hold?”
“They want the cargo, remember?” Johnny said, heading for the hold hatch at high speed. “And I’m sure it’s for the fissionables you’re carrying, not the fighters. They would have just destroyed us if they had known about them.”
“Sydney, drift us over! I’m going back there with him!”
“Good. Take that fighter and get away from here, Willi. We’ll be… Just get away, Sis.”
“Like hell,” Willi muttered. She registered the fact that Clyde had fired again and Sydney’s confirmation of the destruction of another ambusher as she dove through the hatch behind Johnny.
He was already opening the largest of the crates in the hold. Willi’s eyes flared when she saw the sleek Dominator Attack Craft. It was a new model, she saw, taking in the changes from the last small craft briefing she had conducted herself for all the crews aboard Trinity Home.
“One hit in here and we’d be little specks of dust, you know,” Willi said as she helped Johnny open another large crate. Working expertly with him, she helped install the few projecting parts that would have made the crate too big to fit into the shuttle if the Dominator had been left fully assembled. Twice more they sensed the launch of weapons from the shuttle. Sydney and Clyde were giving them all the time they could.
“Okay,” Johnny said. “You shouldn’t have any trouble with the controls. “I’ll suit up and open the hold doors for you. Get in.”
“No,” Willi said stubbornly. “I’m staying.” She looked toward the hatch into the rest of the ship. “I’m not going to leave them behind.” She turned her eyes back to Johnny. “I can’t just run away. Can you… can you really take them all on and win?”
Johnny gave a slight nod.
“Do it. I’ll suit up and open the doors.” She looked at the craft and the cargo hold exterior door. “But…”
“I’ll have to suit up, too and help ease it out the doors. Let’s go.”
It took only a couple more minutes for both of them to be in space suits. Willi heard Johnny ask Sydney through the commlink, “Any of them where they could get a visual or scan of the cargo doors?”
“Negative.”
Willi saw Johnny’s motion toward the cargo door controls. She hit the button to open them, and then moved to join Johnny near one of the other crates. He touched helmets with her so he could talk to her without using the commlink. “I’m going to jettison the other Dominator. It can’t fall into the hands of the pirates.”
She nodded and helped him ease the crate out the open door, and then watch as he very carefully gave it a nudge to head it in the direction he wanted it to go. He watched it for a moment, and then turned to the Dominator. Willi moved to the other side of the Dominator; and watched Johnny. When he motioned to her, she duplicated his movements and eased the craft out the door. It just barely fit.
He touched his helmet to hers again. “I’m going to have to ease out and around them to make sure there aren’t more lying in wait. I will be back in time.”
Willi did not say anything, but Johnny felt the helmet move, as if she was nodding. He pushed off and entered the tight cockpit of the Dominator.
Willi watched the canopy close. She watched the craft drift, still without power, until it disappeared behind the asteroid as they drifted past the other side. Quickly she closed the cargo hold doors and hurried back to the shuttle cockpit.
“Willi!” exclaimed Sydney. He and Clyde had both taken time to put on space suits. “You were supposed to get away!”
Willi saw him look past her to the cargo hatch. “If anything happens to you, I’m going to kill that Johnny Oneshot!”
“He’ll be back,” Willi said as the power died.
“Yeah,” Clyde said. “You know what they say about him.”
“I used to believe it,” Sydney replied. “Maybe there’s still time to get you hidden on the astero…”
“No,” Willi said. “I would not, even if there was enough time. And I insisted he go. He was going to let me use the fighter. And after we get out of this, we are going to have a little discussion about you letting a fully fueled and armed fighter aboard without me knowing anything about it.”
“Uh…gee, Willi,” Sydney stammered, “I didn’t know about it either. It was just two crates. Big ones. And the one smaller one. But he didn’t tell us what was in them.”
“Yeah. Well. For the moment, let’s just get ready. I don’t intend to let them have our cargo, much less this shuttle. Clyde, you have any tricks up your sleeve?”
Clyde grinned. “A couple. But they have to be closer. Visual range.”
“Do it. I want to buy him some time to check things out and get back to us.”
“You really think he’ll be back?” Sydney asked. He suddenly could not see through the faceplate of Willi’s helmet. She had activated the flash protection so he could not see her face.
“He’ll be back,” was what came over the commlink. Sydney decided he would be safer not reading anything into the words or tone.
Maybe she was right anyway. Johnny Oneshot was rumored to have pulled a few rabbits out of hats before.
The pirates had given up trying to board the shuttle, thanks to Clyde’s actions as three of the remaining attack craft had come closer, their instruments showing the lack of power in the shuttle.
Finally, another craft launched a grapnel line, from maximum distance and managed to snag one of the ripped open power pods. They were being towed, obviously toward the pirate’s mother ship.
From the radio traffic Sydney was able to monitor, it was not going to be much longer before the shuttle would be taken aboard that mother ship. “That’s weird,” Sydney suddenly said, making some adjustments to the communications panel.
“What?” Willi asked.
“Just lost the main ship signal in mid word.”
“Look!” Clyde yelled, looking out the flight deck window. They were being towed with the cabin three quarters away from the line of travel. One of the pirate attack craft had been trailing them. It suddenly was no longer there. Only a rapidly expanding ball of debris.
Willi lunged tow
ard the viewports and tried to look toward where the other ships would be. She saw only what looked like another debris cloud.
“I’ve lost every signal!” Sydney said, again making more quick adjustments.
“It’s him!” Willi said, suddenly pushing back from the cockpit windows as the Dominator Attack Craft eased carefully up to the shuttle cockpit.
“I’ll raise him on the commlink,” Sydney said, reaching for another control. He decided then and there that Johnny Oneshot could pull a rabbit out of a hat that was not even there.
Willi put her hand on his shoulder to stop him. She was staring at Johnny, in the cockpit of the Dominator. He had a finger to the helmet where his lips would be, in the quiet sign. When he saw that Willi had seen it, his right hand went to his forehead in a small salute, the sardonic smile just slightly curling his lips. Then the Dominator, and Johnny Oneshot, were gone.
“That guy is spooky,” Clyde said softly.
“Hey,” Sydney said, having left the communications console to join Clyde and Willi to stare out of the cockpit windows. “What is that?”
There seemed to be something attached to the cockpit window. Quickly Willi grabbed her suit helmet and fastened it in place, and then headed for the nearest airlock. Sydney and Clyde knew better than to try to stop her.
She handed them the note when she came back inside, and then headed toward the cargo hold again. Clyde and Sydney recognized the look on Willi’s face and her posture. Willi was not a happy camper.
Both looked down at the note in Sydney’s hand and read the few words there.
You’ll be picked up in less than a day. Thanks for your help, guys. And the less said about it, the better. Check crate JOV010101. I hope it will alleviate some of the aggravation. Please give Lady McKindrick my thanks and my apologies. This message will self-destruct in five seconds. More or less.
“What’s he mean, it will self...?” Clyde suddenly exclaimed when the paper suddenly disintegrated into tiny fragments.
“Wait,” Sydney suddenly said to Clyde. “How did he get that there?”
Clyde said nothing, just shook his head, one more rumor about Johnny Oneshot in the making.
Sydney and Clyde looked around when they heard Willi. She was muttering to herself as she floated toward them.
“What was in the crate?” Sydney asked.
“Luxury items,” Willi growled. “A fortune in luxury items.” She stopped, her nose inches from Sydney’s. “Did you know he knew Mother?”
“He knows Mother? But how?” Sydney looked down at the tiny fragments that was all that was left of the note.
“So, you didn’t know, either,” Willi said, looking thoughtful as she let herself drift away. “I intend to find out. But for the moment, let’s see what we can do to get under way, under our own power. I don’t intend to be found drifting helplessly, if I can avoid it.”
It did not take as long as they thought it might. They did not have much power, but they were at least controlling their direction, and had some way on, when another shuttle from Trinity Home pulled alongside them twenty hours later.
The other shuttle was not alone. It was escorted by a naval corvette. Sydney, Clyde, and Willi were justifiably proud when the Captain of the corvette commended them for their defeat of the pirates, even if it had resulted in the damage they had sustained. They exchanged quick glances when not one word was mentioned about Johnny Oneshot or the Dominator having destroyed the last five of the pirate attack craft.
Casually, Willi inquired about the probable mother ship of the craft that had attacked them.
“That’s why we’re here,” replied the Captain. “We know it has to be out here somewhere. Still don’t know why it didn’t try to take you. You must have put the fear of the Almighty into them, destroying all their attack craft that way.”
The Captain of the corvette shook her head. “For a while, we thought you had destroyed it. We found debris, but it was too far from where you were. And to be honest, not even as good as you are, could you have destroyed it with the weapons on your shuttle.
“The debris must have been from something else, some time ago. There isn’t another naval vessel anywhere close, and there isn’t anything else in this quadrant that could have destroyed anything larger than your shuttle that way. We’ll keep looking, but the chances are that your actions chased them back to their base.”
Again, the three exchanged knowing looks. Suddenly, Sydney smiled and said, “Sounds like something Johnny Oneshot could have done.”
Sydney dodged the sideways kick Willi aimed at him.
“Possibly,” the Captain said. “If he was in the area. The man saved me and this corvette out on the rim a couple of years back. Not to mention half of the rest of the fleet. I really hope I get to meet him someday so I can thank him personally.”
“I think the guy is just a legend,” the Captain’s XO said.
“I know Naval Command’s official version of what happened, Lieutenant. But I was there. I saw the live tracking scans.” She shook her head. “Never mind. I am not going to officially contradict Naval Command.” She looked at Willi. “If you and your shipmates can rig up what you need to get you back to your mother ship, we’ll be on our way. I want to continue searching for that Pirate Mother Ship.”
“We can handle it from here,” Willi said.
Chapter Two
-
Three days later Willi stood before her mother, commander of Trinity Home and leader of the trading clan that called it home. “And you really don’t know him?” Willi asked.
“No, child,” Arabella McKindrick replied. “Of him, of course. It was he… or so it is said… that ran the blockade to bring us the fissionables that allowed the Trinity Home and a dozen more ships to escape destruction by the Ecronians during the Incursion.”
“That was years ago,” Willi said. “I was barely twelve. He would not have been much older than that himself, then.”
“It was said that the pilot was a man-child. A mere boy with the maturity and skills of one much older. He never entered the ship, merely jettisoning the materials as he passed by.”
“The histories say he attacked the Ecronians then, to give time for everyone to refuel and power up so they could get away,” Sydney said. “People always say that he claimed that he did very little. That others did most of it.”
“So, it is said,” Arabella said. “It is true that he was not alone in that. Others came to our aid.”
“But he was the primary cause of the total effect.”
Arabella smiled. “So, I believe. Because of that, when the coded communiqué came in, I could not refuse the request. I did refuse any payment, however.” She frowned slightly as she continued. “I am not pleased that he sent along that gift. And I am even less pleased that he had our communications parameters. I’ve yet to determine how he acquired them. He will not reveal how he acquired the knowledge.”
With a sigh, Arabella added, “He did assure me that it was not from within our organization.”
“Well, how else could he have got our codes and all?” Willi asked.
“I don’t know,” her mother replied. “But I have no reason to doubt him. Everything I’ve ever heard about him indicates that he would never lie.”
“Leave out whole planet loads of information, but not lie,” Willi said with a snort. “I cannot believe you condoned his loading an armed and fueled…” She looked around suddenly.
Arabella was smiling and Sydney grinned, despite the danger to which doing so exposed him. “I’m sure we are secure, dear,” Arabella said.
Willi flushed slightly. “Of course,” she said. “Still… best not to speak of some things, I suppose.”
Though Sydney really did not notice, Arabella knew immediately that Willi was concealing something when her daughter’s eyes dropped slightly as she said, “Considering everything that’s happened, Mother, I thought I might take a break from the routine. You’ve said before that I work too much.
I’m thinking about just going away for a while to… relax. Get away from things.”
“I see,” Arabella replied, studying her daughter’s face for a moment.
Willi’s eyes met her mother’s for a quick moment, but then flicked away even more quickly. Willi frowned a bit when Sydney pitched in with his comment.
“Mother, it would be good for her to get away from things for a while. You know what the pirates might have done if she had been captured. Let her get away from these runs. I know equality is equality, but women really are at much more risk on some of these runs that we do.”
Hating the thought, but deciding it would help with her plan, Willi bit back her retort. She would let them think what they might.
Seeing the flicker in Willi’s eyes, Arabella was absolutely sure that Willi was up to something. Something that had nothing to do with avoiding danger. Probably quite the opposite. And quite probably something to do with the dashing and daring young Johnny Oneshot.
Sydney and Clyde had been lavish in their praise of him. Willi had acknowledged his actions, but not the way her brother and her friend had.
“Yes,” Arabella said softly. “Time for you to… get away… for a while. What arrangements would you like Alfred to make?”
“Oh,” Willi said, quickly, “I can handle things myself. I’m not sure exactly where I want to go, anyway.”
“Of course, dear,” Arabella said. “Whatever you want. Draw as much as you need from stores, and payroll.”
With a quick kiss on her cheek, Willi thanked her mother and hurried from the room.
“Thanks, Mother,” Sydney said, watching his sister leave, a fond smile on his face. He turned back to look at Arabella. “She was great. But I was so scared for her.” He looked at his mother for long moments. “Something has to be done about the pirates, Mother. And the rumors about the Ecronians…”
Mission to Sector ZZ1219 Page 3