Rita Longknife - Enemy Unknown Book I of the Iteeche War (Jump Point Universe 5)

by Mike Shepherd

  “About what I figured,” Rita said, with a nod. “Any chance we could get one of the Ramblers to scout ahead for us? Let us know what’s on the other side of a jump before we risk a bigger ship?”

  “I think we can manage that,” Ray said.

  “So,” the spy said, “we have two lines of examination. One, attempt to physically find the wreck and examine the bodies. See if we can discover anything about the wreck. Twe, we can attempt to examine their navigation gear and exploit it to the maximum. Meanwhile, our computer magician does what she can to conjure data from the wiped memory. Will that give us much data to go on?” he asked, eyeing the pirate captain.

  He licked his lips. “We had no cameras on the boarding party, at least none that anyone remembered to turn on when all hell broke loose. There were some pictures of the wreckage after we started cutting the ship up. It came apart easy enough with 4-inch lasers doing the cutting, so I don’t think she had any armor. But no, we weren’t rigged for doing a lot of science work.”

  “I did get some stuff about the reactors,” one of the youngsters at the captain’s side piped up. “It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen, but then, I hadn’t seen a lot and the database on the Bucket of Blood was pretty limited.”

  “I told you not to call it the Bucket of Blood,” the other young man snapped. The young woman just shook her head.

  “So, you do have some sensor data concerning the possible alien ship,” the spy said.

  “I guess so,” the youngster said.

  “You can try for it,” the alleged pirate captain said, “but the kid is right. We weren’t really set up to do much more than look, see and report back.”

  “But you had 4-inch lasers,” Rita put in.

  “Yeah, we had pop guns.”

  “Anyone have any other questions for our ‘guests’ here?” Rita asked. No one did.

  “Then I’ll have the Marines turn them over to civil authorities.”

  “I believe the Navy will be taking control of them,” the spy said. “Piracy is a crime in Navy jurisdiction and we may want the Navy to do the interrogations.”

  The smile the spy gave the pirate captain was feral. The kind of smile a cat gave a mouse trapped in a corner. Any pleasure that followed would be purely for the cat.

  Not so much for the mouse.

  The pirate swallowed hard.

  Marines entered and ushered the pirates out. The small committee having tested the question of what, now turned to how, who, and when.

  “I’d like to get the Northampton back out there as soon as possible,” Rita said. “The sooner we can fit her out for this kind of problem, and get Matt back out there, the happier I will be. Please consider this. We are hunting for our ships that have gone missing. Is there any chance that other people, or other somethings, are curious about their ships that have gone missing and may be out there doing their own search and rescue missions?”

  Ray winced at that. Both at Rita’s clear intent to go back out and at the likelihood that what he was worrying about was mirrored somewhere in different eyes.

  “I think you’re right,” the spy said. “We need to examine the scene as soon as possible and as thoroughly as possible. I know that you have a lot of confidence in the science team Matt put together for the Second Chance that is now on the Northampton, but I have some people I would suggest. You might want to put the Exeter in the yard so they can upgrade your sensor suite and make space for some scientists.”

  “I hope you don’t intend to do anything that will impair my fighting ability,” Rita said, firm as any fighting captain Ray had ever met.

  “We will try to avoid that,” the spy said. “If I thought we might outfit a spare liner soon enough to sail with you, I would, but I doubt you want to wait a moment more than you have to.”

  “If I could have, I’d have sailed yesterday. Or dropped the pirates off at Savannah and left from there, but I understand the Northampton is still in the yard, getting the sniffer overhauled and upgraded,”

  “The nova did not do nice things to the ship, I was informed. Then they ran into that nebula. Lots of dust swirling about, in the early stages of forming suns and planets. Anyway, the sniffer is delicate and we need to shield it from hot, dirty space when you find yourselves in it.”

  “What can we people do here in the meantime?” Mr. Nuu asked.

  Everyone turned to him.

  “Folks, I’ve got a grandson back there next to the captain’s cabin that I want to grow up. Yes, I know that there are a lot of folks that have had their belly full of war and aren’t much interested in anything that has to do with it, but I have to tell you, what that guy said scared the bejesus out of me.”

  “Do you think it will scare anyone else, Dad?” Rita said.

  “Sadly, daughter, no. You don’t give up on your dreams of avarice just because someone with the credibility of that fellow says he saw something. Ms. Seyd, I will make anything in my business available for your use, but again, I doubt if anything that poor set of sensors captured will get much attention. No, daughter, we will need a lot more information, and need it all examined, validated, and documented, before I dare even whisper ‘wolf’ to my friends and associates.”

  Ray eyed the spy, but he was nodding agreement. “Historically, people can only take so much of the blood and waste of war,” he said. “The Unity War may have been shortened, thanks to the efforts of certain parties,” he said vaguely, “but the impact on most parties was quite deep and vivid. I expect that we have inoculated humanity for a good forty, maybe fifty years from the widow making urge. No, I’m sorry, people will not be interested in falling into ranks and marching off to war this soon.”

  “You know, you’re missing one thing,” Rita said.

  Every eye turned to her.

  “Who says the folks these pirates shot up are all that interested in marching off to the widow maker’s tune, as the gentleman called it? Is it possible that we can somehow get to talk to them and settle this problem peacefully?”

  “One can hope for that, Captain Longknife,” the spy said. “One can surely hope for it.”

  Chapter 26

  Less than a week later, Ray was again waving goodbye to his wife and infant son from the pier as the Exeter lead the Northampton and the re-crewed Second Chance out from the station.

  The bitterness and anger from the fight last night left him standing there, watching the Exeter go, but not bothering to wave.

  “Yes, I know you’re going, but damn it, woman, there’s no reason to take our son out there where heaven knows what is going on,” may not have been the best opening gambit.

  “Alex is not yet weaned. I will not turn him over to my mother and whatever powder the company with the biggest ad buy is pouring down kids’ gullets these days. Alex goes with me, and he will be safe with me.”

  Ray could see that she was only just beginning to build up a full head of steam.

  “I am not some guy, full of testosterone poisoning and hell bent on being the biggest prick in the pack. You know damn well I know how to run. I’ve run with the best of them, and I’ve run with you in my sick bay. I will look around. I will see what I can see. I will collect what I can collect and then I will get my ass back here and in your bed. Now, kiss me, hug me and fuck me.”

  He had done neither as they argued into the night. In the end, he slept on the couch in the library.

  They had hardly talk to each other on the shuttle ride up to the station.

  “Are you sure you won’t leave Alex?” he’d said just once.

  “We’ve been over that and it is settled,” she snapped.

  What answer could a man make to that?

  She sailed, commanding her own ship and with their child, off into harm’s way and he was stuck here, knowing there was something lurking out there, but unable to get anyone to face the horror of that fact.

  He was in no mood for anything short of killing something when he got back to the ministry.

&n
bsp; Where he walked in to find a pair of men in gray, three piece suits waiting for him in his outer office.

  “You Ray Longknife?” the one with the red tie said.

  “Yes.”

  “This ministry is supposed to be in charge of exploring, right,” the one with the blue tie said.

  “That’s what I pick up from the rumors everyone keeps telling me about. I’ve even got a few shekels out of parliament for it,” Ray said. They were kind enough to laugh at the weak joke. “Why?”

  “Because we represent certain parties that have been doing their own exploration.”

  “Always glad to meet kindred souls,” Ray said, and led them into his inner office. He pointed them at the conversation circle. Red Tie took a seat on the brown leather couch, the other took the chair across from the chair Ray preferred.

  Ray wondered if that was just luck, or had these two fellows been briefed to that extent. “Could I offer you a drink? I just put my wife and infant son on a heavy cruiser to go looking for what might or might not be out there in the dark, so I could use a drink.”

  “Yes, we understand your wife has been involved in the search for pirates,” Red Tie said after agreeing to a scotch on the rocks.

  “Strange, that,” Blue Tie said, after accepting the offered drink. “I understand that the anti-piracy patrols had taken to masquerading as merchant ships themselves. Strange that you’re sailing a three-ship task force. Have you found the pirate lair?”

  “You’ll excuse me if I say that I wouldn’t tell you, even if we had. There’s something that we military types call ‘Operation Security’.”

  “Yes, yes, you are a retired general,” Blue Tie said. “We did not mean to pry into that matter, we only meant to point out that three ships sailing together is a definite change from how things have been going on of late.”

  “You are very observant,” Ray said, settling into this own preferred chair. He took a long sip, and then used his finger to stir the ice cubes in his glass. For a long moment, no one said anything.

  Red Tie finally broke the silence to say “Yes, we are observant, and we do keep our ears to the ground. Several men of business pay us to know what is happening before it happens.”

  “Oh. Who might they be?” Ray asked.

  “Ah, we have our own operational security,” blue tie put in with a cheery smile. “But this use of three ships . . . and the collection of pirates being held in the brig on High Wardhaven Station . . . and the two newly discovered planets that they actually managed to stake a claim to, even from their prison cells. It has some people wondering.”

  “I guess they will just have to wonder,” Ray said, sipping his drink. What he wanted was for these two to quit playing games, say what they had to say, get the hell out of his office and let him get roaring drunk in the privacy of his own domain.

  “There’s also the matter of two exploration ships that our associates sent out and that have not come back,” Blue Tie said.

  Ray put down his drink.

  “Are you sure you’ve lost those two ships? That they aren’t just late?”

  “Just as sure as you are that the Prosperous Goose will never lock seals on the station again,” Blue Tie said with death level in his voice.

  “What are you getting at?” Ray said.

  “We represent a consortium of ship owners and business men with interests out in the deep of space that are starting to wonder why our ships don’t come back. Yes, there are pirates. Yes, there is some serious competition to lay a claim to a good planet. But that doesn’t seem like something that should make fast ships with nothing of great value aboard fail to come back. You see what I’m leading to?”

  “Frankly, no I don’t,” Ray Longknife said. “Space is dangerous. You make a mistake. A bad jump. Space eats you.” He liked what he was hearing from these two. That didn’t mean he was willing to jump at the bait they were dangling in his face.

  “Yes, we know that. But when you send good men out with good ships, you don’t expect to lose them. Not at the rate we’re losing them. Some of us are thinking there’s something more to our loses.”

  “Something more? Like what?” Ray said cagily.

  The two men eyed each other, as if tossing a coin to see who would go on. Apparently Blue Tie lost.

  “Is humanity alone in the universe?” he got out, his voice even.

  “And if we aren’t?” Ray shot back before blue tie could get his mouth shut.

  Blue Tie smiled, a tight little thing that didn’t reach his eyes. “Strange. I would have thought you’d have argued the point with me rather than answered the question with a question.”

  “I know what my hole card looks like. I’m wondering what yours is.”

  Again, the two men eyed each other. Clearly, they had a plan when they chose to interrupt Ray’s very bad, no good day. A get drunk day.

  Well, you’re standing between me and a good bottle of Scotch. Spit it out or get out.

  “Are there armed aliens out there?” Blue Tie finally said.

  “You’re willing to entertain that possibility, are you?”

  “When you’ve exhausted all the possible causes for your problems, sometimes you have to look at some of the less probable causes. Some folks have always said that if you visited enough planets, you’re bound to find one sprouting life. We’ve found a lot of planets. Some two hundred have got us on them. We’re finding a lot more out there. It seems likely if there are enough beds out there, you just might find a monster under one of them.”

  General Ray Longknife eyed them for a long minute. Neither one blinked. Neither one flinched.

  “Okay. Let me show you something,” Ray finally said.

  Neither man said a word while the interview between Rita and the pirate captain played through.

  “Oh shit,” said Red Tie when the interrogation had run its course.

  “Weren’t expecting that, were you?” Ray said.

  “It’s one thing to think something might be possible,” Blue Tie said. “It’s another to have your nose rubbed in it.”

  “For the record, I’m not rubbing your nose in anything. That’s one man talking, and not a man I’d put on the witness stand and expect to hold up all that well. And his ship’s computers got wiped, so we don’t even have some digital images to test for artificial generation. He says there are flying squids in space. I’m not saying it.”

  “You sound like you don’t want to believe it,” Blue Tie said.

  “My wife just sailed off with our infant son to go see if she can find the wreckage before the other guys’ ship owners go looking for what happened to their little boat. Yeah, I’m kind of hoping the bastard is a bloody liar.”

  Blue Tie nodded in understanding. Red Tie, apparently a few years younger and likely not a dad yet, just eyed the two of them.

  It was Red tie who spoke next. “Can we have a copy of that video? Maybe speak to the pirate skipper ourselves?”

  Ray shook his head. “Nope. While my wife is sticking her neck out there, you can wait like I am. What you can do is talk to the men who sent you. If they want to talk to me, I’m more than willing to meet with them. Folks, the Navy is laid up in moth balls. That was probably a great idea when they did it last year. Maybe not such a good idea at the moment.”

  “You’ve got a point,” Red Tie said.

  “We’ll be getting in touch with you again,” Blue Tie said, coming to his feet. He left his drink untouched as he led Red Tie out the door.

  Ray tapped his commlink. “Andy, get in here. You ain’t gonna believe who just walked in my door.”

  Chapter 28

  Captain Rita Nuu Longknife laid in a fast course, using all the shortcuts available from the star map her husband had brought back from Santa Maria. Still, it involved almost three weeks of 1.25 gee accelerations and decelerations. That left one Alex Longknife very cranky and he let his mommy and nannies know that he did not like this extra weight.

  A Marine Gunny suggeste
d a water bed for the little tyke, and managed to knock one together from a couple of plastic bags. Alex was sleeping better when they finally entered the system they thought was the one the pirates had identified.

  The system was empty.

  Rita sent the Northampton over to sniff for a dust trail. It was always possible that someone . . . no, something . . . had removed the wreckage. While that went down, Rita took the Exeter through the nearest jump. The Second Chance took a look at what was on the other side, the farthest one, after covering the distance at 2.20 gees.

  Nobody found anything.

  So, they started laying down a communication net of jump point buoys and scouted around the star systems in the general area.

  An empty week later, Rita got a message from the Northampton. Matt had picked up a trail.

  Rita sent orders to the Second Chance to double back and join her in chasing Matt. Again, she laid on 1.25 gees. Again, Alex let her know he didn’t like it.

  He took a nip out of her breast during one fine lunch.

  The senior nanny suggested Rita express her milk and let them feed it to Alex through a standard bottle. Rita rubbed her sore breast and rocked back and forth in the rocker, holding him close, but not that close. She watched the mobile of brightly colored fairies twist above his bed.

  She’d assumed that if she took him with her on the ship, the two of them would do all that bonding that mother and child were supposed to do.

  This wasn’t working out as she thought it would.

  If she was honest with herself, she was spending most of her time on the bridge. Yes, she dropped in for feedings, but she wasn’t doing much more than that. It was the nannies who were bouncing him on their lap, helping him to sit up and getting him up on his stubby feet to bounce around.

  She was about as much of a parent to Alex as any busy career man ever was.

  You wanted it all, girl. Well, you got it. You’re a mom and a dad and a long hours working one at that.

  “Do you have a nipple protector? I think I’ve heard of something like that,” Rita finally said.