by K. Rowe
you trying to tell me your mother got sold into slavery?”
“Ga, mogginar slevea; Schmuff slevea.”
“I told you, I may have bought you at a slave auction, but I don’t consider you a slave. I needed an engineer, and you seem to know what you’re doing…Not to mention you’re an excellent cook.” He tasted one of the Gardinian tubers; it was sweet and starchy. “I think I got a great bargain for three hundred drig. But if you keep cooking like this, you’re gonna make me fat!” They laughed.
Schmuff poured two glasses of wine. He picked his up. “Tek taah Marsuian!”
Dar raised his glass. “To the Marsuian!” He reached across the table and clinked glasses with Schmuff. “May she serve another fifty or more years!”
17
“This is the Marsuian requesting permission to undock,” Dar said into his headset as he stood at the control console. His stomach jumped and jittered, the excitement inside him almost uncontainable. Considering the vast overhaul the ship had, the control console remained virtually unchanged. The re-fitters even left all the original Satiren writing on it. The only new part was a small sub-panel with a few weapons controls—namely torpedoes. After six months in dock, Dar was itching to get going. He’d gotten with Eglig Modew and had a few jobs lined up. One happened to be hauling a shipment of massive specialty rockets to Sirrix.
“Roger, Marsuian, you are clear to undock.”
“Thank you. And thank you all for the kind treatment you’ve shown me.”
“Safe journeys, Marsuian.”
Dar fired the bow thrusters, edging the ship out of dock. He backed away nearly a mile before slowly turning. Looking ahead, he saw the stars, just waiting for him. “Well, Marcy, let’s see what you can do.” He nudged the throttle, bringing the ship to full impulse power. “Schmuff? Do you read?” Dar said.
“Ga, kaptaw, Eg’m reegy.”
“Let’s start out slow, just warp one for a little bit.”
“O-kay,” Schmuff replied. There were a few words of Ontarrin that he knew. Mostly it was his choice to speak his native language.
Dar made one last check of the navigation computer. His test should send them near Zumik 6 in the Tau sector, about two days away at warp one—if all went well. He was told to operate Marcy for three months, then return for evaluation. The total cost of the refit, with all the “experimental allowances” cost almost four million drig. He’d only have to repay Gorrin about seven hundred thousand for the loan. And with the way payloads were calculated, it wouldn’t take very long. Then he’d repay Gwog; something he had absolutely no problem with. He almost wished his long-time friend and mentor was here to see this.
“All right, Marcy, let’s open you up.” He rested his hand on the throttle, took a deep breath, and pushed it forward. “Warp one.” Dar watched as the stars became a blur. “How’s she doing, Schmuff?”
“Geed, Marcy wak egin geed.”
“Good? Shall I give her a little more?”
“Ga!”
“All right, warp two.” He upped the throttle. The stars ahead streaked by faster. “That’s it, now you’re moving.”
“Chasta! Chasta!” Schmuff called over the comm headset.
“Faster?”
“Ga!”
“Seriously?”
“Ga! Wak tregi.”
“Okay, warp three.” Dar let out a tense little sigh as he pushed the throttle again. He watched the warp speed indicator. “Warp three and holding.”
“Wak furg!”
“Oh, come on! Warp four?”
“Ga! Marcy kun frook set.”
“You’re confident Marcy can take it, huh?”
“Ga. Regfiktur sakt Marcy nwatss wak teg.”
Dar nudged the throttle more. “You say the re-fitter told you that Marcy goes to warp ten?”
“Ga. Kett’s nwat!”
He laughed. “Let’s go—funny.”
“Kaptaw!”
“All right, all right, we’ll go a bit faster.” Dar moved the throttle to warp five. “There, happy?”
“Ga, weree yippai.”
“I’m glad you’re very happy. Now let me get to work.” He realized he was going much faster and farther than expected, and needed to recalculate his course. Quickly, his fingers went to work plotting out his expected destination. “Oh, Appolion 6? I didn’t think I’d end up there.” He checked to see if there were any other planets along the way, but the space he’d be passing through was sparsely populated.
Letting the engine run for nearly eleven days at warp five, he watched his course plot out. When they were close, he dropped from warp, expecting to see the planet Appolion. Instead, he was face to face with eight Soothian pirate ships. “Aw, shit!”
“Katpaw?”
“We got pirates, Schmuff.”
“Shit,” came the reply.
Dar didn’t think twice. He raised the shields and brought all weapons online. Since the new weapons were expensive, Dar hoped to avoid using them. “This is Captain Dar Meltom of the Marsuian.”
“The Marsuian? What ship is that?”
“My ship. I was crew of the Cunik, now I have my own.”
“So, you know who I am?”
“Nokkis?”
“Yes,” he replied with a little laugh. “And what do you have for me today?”
“Nothing that concerns you.” Dar locked target on what he thought was the lead ship.
“But you are carrying cargo.”
“And its value is not worth you losing a few ships over.”
“Me losing ships? Hardly!”
Dar selected a torpedo. The weapons lab engineers sold him two very experimental ones to try. They were outfitted with a shield destabilizing feature that allowed them to fly right through and destroy their target. “I’m gonna give you one last chance to leave, then I’ll open fire.”
“Give it your best shot, captain.”
“Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He checked his targeting once more, and pushed the button. A bright flash of light came from under the ship, followed by a streak of light as the torpedo zoomed toward its target. “Come on, come on,” Dar said softly, hoping it would work. A moment later, the ship in the middle exploded. “Wooooooooo!” he cheered, jumping up and down.
His celebration was cut short as the Soothians unloaded with laser cannons and phasers. The Marsuian was rocked as her shields took the brunt of the attack. “Hang on, Marcy, we need to get out of this mess.” Firing the port thrusters, he veered to the right, trying to make an escape. The pirates quickly took up the chase.
“You can’t out run us, our ships are faster,” Nokkis said.
“Shit, I didn’t kill you?”
“No, I’m not as ignorant or arrogant as my father was.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed,” Dar joked as he quickly plotted out his course to Sirrix. It was eighty-eight thousand light years away, and he wondered just how far the pirates would go to get his cargo. He fired a few more salvos from his port laser cannons and prepared to jump to warp. One of the pirate ships fired a large cannon. Marcy took the hit on her port side. The blast was so strong it knocked Dar off his feet. He tumbled to the deck and hurriedly got up. “Ow! That hurt.” He checked the shields. “Schmuff, can you give me more power to the port shields?”
“Ga, kaptaw.”
The ship was rocked again. Dar saw who fired this time. “All right, enough being nice.” He locked target on the ship and fired his last torpedo. “Take that! Marcy doesn’t like getting into fights—she’ll finish it!” The torpedo shot through the blackness of space, penetrated the shields of the pirate ship, and blew it into a million pieces. The other ships continued their barrage. Dar realized that even with all the improvements, Marcy would not survive an attack by six more pirate ships. “Schmuff? I’m gonna get us out of here. We might be going pretty fast, so keep an eye on that engine, okay?”
“Ga, egin geed.”
“Here goes nothing.” Dar shoved the throttle forwar
d. The ship jumped to warp. “One…two… three…four…five…” He watched the speed indicator in disbelief. “Six…seven…eight…nine…ten! Schmuff, are you reading warp ten?!”
“Ga, kaptaw, wak teg.”
He flipped on the rear view screen to see the pirates disappearing in his warp wake. “Yes! Yes! Ha, ha! We’ve out run the pirates!” Dar gave the control console a little pat. “Marcy, you’re the fastest freighter in the galaxy!” He left the engine to run at warp ten for a while. Truly, he wanted to get to Sirrix, off load his cargo, and get to Tridius to pick up a shipment of clothing bound for Lanteris. After that, he figured he’d have enough drig to pay back Gorrin Algok.
Dar stood in his astro-observation bubble on top of the ship and watched as the second Sirrixian rocket was offloaded onto the planet’s surface. Marcy didn’t have a bubble when he got her, but he made a point to get one installed so he could do his charting up there; and it gave him a great view. Yes, it was extra drig, but he felt he needed one. And it made him feel even closer to the stars.
Checking his charts on the table, he plotted the course to Tridius, and then on to Lanteris. Dar was happy his brush with the pirates had a favorable outcome. The Newrillians did a great job on Marcy, he mused, writing down the coordinates. At least now he stood a chance against the pirates. He stopped for a moment and remembered way back when he first joined as crew on the Cunik, and how Gwog insisted the courses be plotted by chart. Here he was, years later, still doing it the same way. He missed his friend and mentor, and all his other “fathers” on the Cunik. Dar especially missed Jartis, who taught him so much about engineering, and also