by T S Paul
“No, sir! When it happened, I responded immediately. These are MY people! Mine. I took care of it.”
“May I ask what you did.” The captain was interested now.
“I jumped the counter and held him at knife point then told the pinche pendejo that if he messed with my people, I would cut his cajones off and feed them to him.” The chief smiled at that.
“Remind me to never make you mad, Chief.” The Captain smiled and then frowned as his thoughts turned serious. “What I wanted to speak with you about is those new people. I have reason to believe that they might be a mercenary group called the Bad Pennies and that they may be trying to take over the ship.”
The Chief’s eyes grew enormous, then he grabbed a chef knife off of his desk and began waving it in the air cursing. “Hijo de la chingada madre! I will catch them and I will cut their cajones off and make criadillas with them.”
Half laughing at the response he got the captain told the chief to calm down a bit. “Sorry Chief no chopping off their balls today. I need for you to not let on that you know. Can you do that?” At the chief’s nod he continued. “We know we can trust your department, engineering, and the marines. Several of our officers around the ship like Dr Smith are with us too. I will have the marines drop some weapons by later today. Hide them if you can. Tell only your regular crew, no others.” He paused. Eyeing the chief and his knife he thought that maybe the cooks were far more afraid of the Chief than the captain. “We are not sure how far this goes, or when they'll strike. The fall back position will be here in the galley and down in the engine room. Understood?”
“Si, El Capitano. I will do as you say. If those pinche puta’s come in here and attack us, we will carve them up.”
“As you say, chief. But keep it quiet, OK?” Still chuckling at the chief’s response the captain went back to the bridge.
___
The first glimpse of who might be behind the plot to take the ship came when communications intercepted a communique to all ships and outbound traffic. It was a non-government broadcast.
“Sir, we are picking up a broadcast from the planetary government.”
“The planetary government? Not the Sector one?”
“Yes, sir. It is directed to any outbound ships with a request to rebroadcast if possible.”
“Can you put on screen? Let’s see this broadcast. The planetary government doesn’t have that kind of authority.”
Looking at the main screen the captain watched a planetary newscast of farmers with their families peacefully marching to oppose the new government taxes. The sheer amount of people in the march was shocking to him. Were there really that many people even on the planet to begin with? The screen captured the undivided attention of the bridge officers. When the ESS troops opened fire, Captain Pigot jerked back in shock. They watched in horror as thousand of unarmed civilians were cut down and killed. The slaughter, for that was what it was, continued for over 30 minutes. The images of a heroic man trying to protect a group of children would stay with him his whole life.
The newscast switched to a written message begging for anyone receiving this to rebroadcast it so the truth would be known. The broadcast claimed that the Sector government was locking down the satellites preventing messages from going out.
“Communications? Start scanning all frequencies. Try and find some government response to this or any official news if you can.”
“Yes, sir, right away sir.”
The captain closed his eyes, and deep in his thoughts, he missed the brief conversation between the XO, navigation and weapons officers.
“Excuse me, sir? Communications has found a Government Broadcast.” The XO touched the captain on his arm waking him up.
Opening his eyes, the captain jerked awake. “Sorry XO, I guess I dozed off. What was it you were saying?”
“Captain, we received a Government broadcast.”
“Excellent. Put it on screen, please.”
Once again the screen lit up and different newscasters could be seen. This news report was very different from the previous one. According to Government sources, the protest was a violent insurrection that had touched off a civil war on the planet Hong Kong. Rebel forces opposing the government killed the brave ESS troops that tried to prevent mobs of protesters from killing innocent children. The video showed a space battle with local forces shooting down ESS troopships. The Sector Government was calling for all navy ships to return to base to help to put down this insurrection.
“Did we receive any navy messages to return to base?” Captain Pigot asked the communications officer.
“No, sir. Not that we can find. Nothing official. There are some personal mail messages and the usual navigational beacon changes. One brief message mentions the satellite network going down for repairs. Nothing else, sir.”
“Thank you commander. Go ahead and log those messages. Notify me if you find anything else. I will be in my Ready Room XO you have the conn.” The captain got up from his chair and left the bridge.
___
Commander McKay, the ships new XO, looked to his boss ‘Commander’ Alvin Glatkowski. His boss was better known as Alvin-the-taker, leader of the Bad Penny gang.
The communications officer Lieutenant Humphrey waved them both over to his station. “Sir, we received a communication from the Governor. He said to take the ship as soon as possible and deliver it to Legation Station security. He said that we would be paid double for a quick delivery.”
“Good. Waiting was risky. Start spreading the word to our men. Have them meet us in cargo hold number one tonight at the start of third shift. We will strike just before shift change when as many as possible are asleep.” The mercenary Captain was pleased.
“What should we do with the crew, sir?” the ‘XO’ asked.
Looking to the communications officer Alvin asked “Were there any instructions about the Navy crew?”
“No, sir, just to deliver the ship. Nothing about the crew.”
“We should have some fun, then. When we are done, we can just space ’em. Less mouths to feed that way.” He thought for a moment. “If the Governor had not paid us so well I might think about trying to take this ship, but crossing him is not a good idea. OK get back to work. Look at it this way, only 12 more hours of this navy BS to put up with.”
All three ‘officers’ returned to their duties. Unknown to them a new security camera now located on the main door captured their entire meeting.
___
Captain Pigot and Lieutenant Mutai sat watching the meeting on the new security cameras. “Well, at least we know for sure now.”
“Yes, sir. They are meeting in cargo hold number one. They must have weapons stored there. It can’t be very many or else our scans would have told us of their existence. They must plan to use what they have to take the armory. They should be in for a surprise there. We moved out what we could. The rest we sprayed with a corrosive Chief Tad gave us. It should make the ammo, mostly unusable and difficult to handle. That will limit how much they can come at us. We set up defenses inside the CIC and the medical department, and we prepared the engineering department as a main base. The access tube hatches have either been welded shut or had the codes changed. My marines are booby-trapping the tubes as we speak. I have the Chief’s techs trying to reroute the navigation controls from CIC, to engineering. If they can do it, we will still be able to steer the ship.”
“Lieutenant, you and the rest did all of this in less than 15 hours? That’s- incredible. If we survive, I promise you a commendation for this!”
“We still have to survive this, sir.”
Chapter 3
One hour before the start of first shift was when the mercs made their move. The crew was just waking up to start the day when the hull breach sirens went off.
“Attention there is a Hull Breach in Section 2……..Attention there is a Hull Breach in Section 2”
The standard operating procedure was for personnel to evacuate aw
ay from the breach, which in this case was the armory. Surprised crew members in many states of undress, were clustered in the forward part of the ship. They had been herded there by armed the now armed mercenaries. The flashing lights and alarms stopped. The ‘XO’ accompanied by ‘Commander’ Glatkowski approached the crew members and called them to attention.
“Attention please!”
“Can I have your BLOODY attention!” The XO pulled his weapon and shot one of the half dressed crew members, a male ensign.
Amid cries of surprise and of fright, he tried calling attention again. This time they listened.
“Let’s get a few things straight, shall we? We are now in charge. My name is Richard McCoy. I am the second officer for the Bad Pennies mercenary group. This ship is now in our possession. You will do as you are told or we will kill you.” The crowd settled down and were silent but for a few murmurings. “Now, where is Captain Pigot?” The group was silent, some looked around as if to search for him. McCoy pointed at one of the armed men. “Go and search his cabin. Check the Ready Room too!”
After a few minutes the armed man returned looking excited. “Sir, the captain isn’t here! We searched the whole bow, no sign of him.”
“Damn it! We need the Captain!” Yelling at his men he pointed them toward the mess hall. “Take these prisoners to the mess hall. Make the cooks prepare food, then lock them up too. Get moving!” He watched as his men shoved the people forward. Grabbing one of his men he said “Separate out all the good looking women. We need some fun and sport later, after we capture the captain.” The now smiling mercenary laughed, rubbing his crotch with excitement. He turned and trotted after the prisoners.
The former XO grinned at the thought of having a little fun time after the weeks he spent playing nice for the unsuspecting captain. One of his men exited the bridge and ran up to him. “Sir, we searched the entire bow area. We even put on suits and peeked outside. The Captain is not here. It’s possible he went aft. You did say he was friends with the engineer.”
McCoy nodded his head. “It’s out of character for him, but that might be the answer. Get with the armory team and make sure he isn't hiding in there. What’s the status of the crew? Did we get everyone in the bow?”
“No, sir. Including the captain we are missing about 20% of the crew. About half of that should be in engineering. We know from ships orders that they were conducting an engine tear down. It’s possible that the Chief called in crew early to get it repaired.”
Looking sharply at his man, McCoy asked “Just who else is missing besides engineering crew?”
“Sir, all of the Marines, Dr Smith and his orderlies, and several of the older officers.”
“So basically everyone from the aft section? We may have a leak! Put more men on the armory door, we need those weapons NOW!” The mercenary crewman ran toward the armory grabbing a few others as he went.
“Sir! Sir! All the kitchen staff is gone!” The man he sent for the women was yelling at him.
“What are you saying? Who is gone?” This day could not get any worse.
“I did as you told me and started rounding up all the women when we noticed that the kitchen area was dark. All the cook staff is missing and the food stores are gone. We checked, even those nasty emergency food bars are missing!”
“Damn it to hell! We have to have a traitor among us! When I find him I'll frighten his whole family! Send an armed party aft. We need to know what we may be facing.” Bracing himself, he headed toward the bridge, he now had to tell his boss the bad news.
___
Captain Pigot, along with Marine Lieutenant Mutai were watching the mercenary force that was on board their ship via closed circuit cameras. The captain had gotten lucky so far. The mercs had chosen to consolidate the bow section first before moving aft. As Lieutenant Mutai had predicted they were trying to break into the armory. That will be a surprise to them. The captain regretted not being able to save more of his crew. That decision was already haunting him.
Chief Kościuszko’s engineering crews were working overtime getting the fighting positions built. Working with the kitchen staff, they managed to find a storage place for all the food and ammunition. The small Marine force was outfitting the crew with body armor and giving basic shipboard fighting refreshers. The medical staff had set up a small aid station in CIC and the main hospital in engineering. The various other crew were laying out supplies and arming the weapons.
The captain called his officers together in Chief ‘Tad’s’ office. On the screen in front of them was a map of the ship.The sections had been delineated by color. All of the bow section including the holds were marked in red. Everything aft of hold three was marked in blue.
“We don’t have a lot of time, so listen up. We have defensive points here, here, and here.” The Captain was pointing on the map to the hatch to hold number three, the main corridor, and the access tube down the center of the ship.
“There are small units covering the emergency exterior access ports. I don’t expect them to hit us from outside. But we need to be covered. So far they have not spotted the cameras we set up. When they do, we will lose all intelligence so watch them closely. They have the rest of the crew locked up in the mess hall.” His face grew grim. “They separated out the women and have them locked up in hold number one.” He motioned to Lieutenant Mutai.
“Of the crew with us only about 10% have any kind of battle experience. Those that do are now our front line of defense. My Marines will be floating between stations when the fighting begins. Regardless of rank when they give you an order obey them. They are the professionals here.”
One of the engineering crew came into the room. “Sir, we have movement. A small force of 5 armed men is making their way down the corridor toward us. Orders sir?”
Lieutenant Mutai looked at the Captain. “I guess that finishes what I had to say. Good luck all of you. Kila la kheri!”
“Team leaders get moving, everyone else to your stations. Move people!” Captain Pigot was fired up now.
___
Wylie O’Malley was happy to have the ruse of being a navy crewman out of the way. Once a pirate always a pirate was his family's
motto. The boss had told him to check out the aft section and look for the missing crew members. He had grabbed four of the other pirates and was making his way toward engineering. He had been told that there was crew in engineering. The engineers had been working on a disassembled engine. But where was everyone else.
His boys were having a grand time searching the storerooms and cabins along the way. Lots of loot to be found. They had already filled their pockets with small bits of jewelry and other valuables. Engineering should be ahead right around the next corner. The boys laughing and joking were passing around a bottle they had found in a cabin. One of them called “I get the next one!” and jogged around the corner right into a hail of gunfire. His torn body was thrown backwards sprayed his companions with blood.
Wylie yelled at the others “Down, down ya fekking idiots! Get your guns out and fire back!” Ducking into a doorway Wylie grabbed his communicator and started screaming into it. “Taking fire, taking fire!”
___
“Taking fire!”On hearing this the pirate commander cursed. So much for taking this ship without a fight! How in the nine hells did they know? He swore to cut the balls off the traitor and feed them to him when they caught him! Alvin, the leader of the Bad Pennies, had not been very happy to hear that the Captain and others were loose on ‘his’ ship. If McCoy had not been needed, he might be floating in space right now. He needed to check on those idiots at the armory. Without those weapons… well, he didn’t want to think about it.
Entering the armory and Marine area McCoy started yelling at his men. “Status report, got that door open yet?”
“No, sir. We were about to blow it open.The cutting torch wasn’t working. Someone switched the acetylene tank with a carbon dioxide one.” Several men were lining the edges of t
he door with plastic explosive instead.
Waving the men to cover McCoy ducked down behind a desk with his ordinance man. “Fire in the hole!”
With a loud explosion and a bright flash the door crashed inward striking the floor. Smoke billowed out of the armory. Several of his men rushed forward with fire suppression devices and sprayed through the door. The smoke now had a chemical ‘taste’ to it. It began to dissipate allowing access to the room. With a yell of victory several of the pirates rushed into the now open armory.
“Well, what’s in there? Are the weapons undamaged?” One of his men stepped out of the armory, he was dragging a large container behind him.
“Sir, there seems to be ammo aplenty, but as for weapons? Here look for yourself.” He pointed down.