Black Sheep

by Rachel Aukes

  “Sorry for what?” Throttle asked.

  “I assumed they’d be attached since they all came from the Gabriela. I thought it’d be a quick grab-and-go,” Sylvian said.

  “East was probably keeping the supplies for herself,” Throttle said as she began to move the ship closer to the Gabriela.

  Nearly all spaceships had what looked like luggage racks on all sides. The bars provided something for a crew to hook cables onto while doing ship maintenance as well as serving as, well, luggage racks. They would make it easy to hook on warehouse units, even if the units were several times the size of the ship. With no friction in space, ships were constructed in space docks, and like the Gabriela, could be as ugly as a designer could imagine…and the Gabriela was as ugly as they came.

  The only smooth ships found in the black were those with capabilities of flying through atmospheric conditions and landing on planet surfaces. The Javelin was one of those ships. Its hull was smooth with only small bars mounted in protected exterior places, which meant it would be useful at Hiraeth, but had little to offer at the warehouse. Fortunately, the Gabriela had been built for exactly what it was about to do, and, as an old pirate, Birk had more than enough experience moving large items from one place to another place in zero g.

  Light glinted off metal. Throttle’s gaze moved to see several magnetic grappling lines shoot out from the Gabriela. The lines hit the warehouse unit with enough force that the entire unit flew back and banged into another unit until the grappling lines stopped it.

  Seconds later, a drone shot out from the cargo ship. It, too, was on a line and it moved jerkily toward the warehouse unit. Throttle wrinkled her nose. Birk was obviously out of practice on operating drones. Somehow, the drone made it to the unit without smashing into another unit or flying through a line. The drone latched onto the tether and began cutting the line that held the unit to the warehouse. As soon as the tether broke, the magnetic lines began pulling the unit and drone toward its massive open cargo bay.

  The Trappist colonization mission had been prepped with everything a colony would need to survive on its own with no support of any kind. After all, they hadn’t expected to come across other humans so far away from their home system. All the colonists and trip supplies took up only a small portion of the Gabriela’s storage capabilities. They’d planned to utilize the ship’s full storage areas after the colony was established, when they’d need to haul valuable resources from asteroids to help build the colony. Throttle never imagined she’d need to use the cargo ship’s main space to get her own passengers back.

  “Captain,” Rusty said, “I’m picking up four ships on an intercept course with the Gabriela.”

  Throttle felt her face blanch. “Tag them on my panel. Do they have weapons?”

  “Yes. I read at least one machine gun on each ship. I’m not reading any photon cannons. I believe these may be pirate ships.”

  If they had magnetic rounds, the machine guns would be even worse at a short distance, with any hit resulting in hull damage.

  In a rush, she began to reposition the ship.

  “What are you doing?” Sylvian asked.

  “We have the thicker hull. I’m placing us between the pirates and the sleepers. That means they have to go through us first.” She took a quick breath. “Rusty, I want you to maintain this position relative to the warehouse unit until the cargo bay is closed.”

  “I will comply, even at risk to my hull.”

  Throttle attempted to push to her feet and realized she couldn’t. “Garrett!”

  He jumped up.

  “Get me to the Scorpia.”

  “You can’t,” Sylvian said. “Its systems have been moved to the Javelin.”

  “Only its nav and comms,” Throttle said. “I can fly on visuals, and I’ve got my wrist-comm, so I can stay in contact with you. Tell the Gabriela to jump the instant they have the cargo door closed. We’ll catch up.”

  “But what about the second warehouse unit? The one with the printer and all our supplies?”

  “We protect the sleepers first,” Throttle said.

  “You need a second gunner. I’ll go with you, boss,” Garrett offered enthusiastically.

  “Then get your chime suit on, and Mutt will help me.” She looked to the bearded man as Garrett whooped and ran off the bridge. “We need to move fast.”

  “No need to tell me twice.” Mutt grabbed her and rushed her into the hallway. “Need an extra gunner? Can’t say my aim’s any good, but I can squeeze a trigger.”

  “I’m good. Stay here, and have Aubree find you a chime suit just in case they get a lucky shot in. The Javelin’s got a thick hull, but it’s not impervious.” She tapped her wrist-comm. “Eddy, we’ve got company. I’m taking the Scorpia out.” She shut off the call before Eddy could complain, though she knew Eddy would be running to pull any cables off the gunship right away. He might have disliked every person to have ever existed, but he understood the value of moving quickly in the right circumstances.

  When they arrived in the cargo hold, Mutt whistled at the view of the gunship. “You have all the toys.”

  “We were leaving a war zone. I wasn’t about to go anywhere without my gunship.”

  Eddy jogged down the Scorpia’s ramp, carrying an armful of cables. “It’s messy in there, but she’ll fly. Remember that she has no working nav or comms systems.”

  “As long as she flies and shoots, I’m good,” Throttle said.

  Mutt helped her on board and into her pilot’s seat. Garrett ran on board and squeezed past Mutt to get to the second seat on the bridge.

  “I’m beginning to see why they call you Throttle. Seems like you do all the flying around here,” Mutt said.

  “That’s not why she’s called that,” Garrett said, buckling in. “I mean, she is the only pilot on the crew, but she’s called Throttle because she’s not just a pilot but the best damn pilot in the Trappist system. Probably here, too. She can pull more speed and tighter turns out of any ship.”

  Mutt smiled and then left the bridge. A few seconds later, she powered up the systems and closed the airlock door. She felt more impacts on the hull and skipped the prelaunch checks, knowing half of them would fail.

  “Rusty?” she called out loudly as she prepared the Scorpia for launch.

  “Yes, Throttle?”

  “Do you have the capabilities to fly the Javelin on autopilot to Hiraeth?”

  “Yes, but my systems do not yet have all the protocols I need for automated landing or docking.”

  Throttle frowned.

  “Why are you asking that?” Garrett asked. “Don’t you think we’ll make it back?”

  “Just covering our bases,” she said without looking up from her panel, and tapped her wrist-comm. “Ready for launch.”

  “Let’s get us some baddies,” Garrett said.

  A light on the cargo door before her flashed, and the door slid open. It opened faster than she’d expected, but perhaps Rusty could move faster when the situation called for it. Without hesitating, she powered the nav engines and flew out of the bay. The moment she was free, she added near full power and cranked around the back of the ship.

  She yanked the joystick barely in time to miss a pirate ship trying to fly around the back of the Javelin.

  “Whoa!” Garrett exclaimed and started shooting.

  “Try not to shoot our guys,” Throttle said as she maneuvered to give chase.

  The pirate ship was agile, fast, and more maneuverable than the Scorpia. It went vertical before looping back to pass behind her. Its machine gun lit up.

  Throttle jinked, but several rounds made contact with the hull. That so many shots had hit the hull confirmed her suspicions. They were using magnetized rounds.

  Warnings blared as she focused on getting out of range. “You need to be on the guns,” she said.

  “I’m working on it.”

  She cranked the Scorpia around and found another ship. “New target for you, Garrett.”
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  This one was large and looked to be some type of cargo hauler. It was nowhere near the size of the Gabriela, but large enough to take in at least a couple of warehouse units. She barreled straight toward it while briefly checking the warning lights. Three small hull breaches. With no helmet and her chime suit worthless, she had to finish this fight fast.

  By placing the Scorpia between the two pirate ships, neither could shoot without hitting one of their own. It was an assumption, but when no more shots were fired, Throttle knew it was a good one.

  “I’ve got it zeroed in.” He fired nonstop photon bursts. A few missed; most didn’t. At least two left large burn marks. The larger ship veered, but as she suspected, it didn’t have the maneuverability of the small ship. Garrett fired again and hit the less protected side of the larger ship. With the proximity of the Scorpia, the pirate ship didn’t stand a chance; every photon blast penetrated the hull. Moist air shot out like steam from the meter-wide holes in the ship. The ship continued to veer off and Throttle let it—it was out of the fight. Any crew left alive would be focused on abandoning their ship.

  The ship behind them fired again. Throttle threw the stick forward and brought the Scorpia into an outside loop to get behind the smaller ship.

  “I don’t see it,” exclaimed Garrett.

  “I’m looking for it, too,” she said. It was the size of the diminutive Scorpia but far more agile, and by the time she came out of the loop, it’d broken off. She rolled at the end of the loop to find the other ship, wishing suddenly she had her nav system so she could see every bogey tagged on her panel. Instead, she was going purely off her own visuals, which were limited to what the external cameras picked up, as the Scorpia had no windows.

  She tapped her wrist-comm. “Sylvian, have Rusty track the bogeys. I need their locations.”

  “Working on it. Okay. Which one do you need?”

  “The little guy.”

  “He’s off my grid right now. He’s too close to Jade-8, and the scanners lost him in all the noise.”

  The Scorpia hadn’t been built for luxury. It was a gunship that had been used in two wars and had done a stint as a pirate ship in between. What it lacked in luxury, it made up for in the two photon guns and the drop tank for carrying extra fuel. It was more agile than many and faster than most, but these pirates weren’t making it easy on her. Her hull had already been punctured and there were still three ships out there.

  She maxed out the engines and raced away from the Gabriela and Javelin long enough to get a new view. With the smaller ship missing, she found the other two firing at the Javelin. The Javelin wouldn’t be able to run interference for long, not with the dents now marring its hull.

  “We’re going to help the Javelin. Don’t miss,” she announced as she went back into the battle on maximum power.

  “Go straight in for a bit longer…almost have it…got it.” Garrett fired off a quick succession of shots. Photon guns were made for single shots, but Garrett had always had a trigger finger meant for a Gatling. His shots went straight through the bridge of the nearest ship, silencing it. One photon burst nicked the second shooter, causing the ship to stop firing at the Javelin and turn in Throttle’s direction.

  “The small ship is emerging from Jade-8’s noise,” Sylvian said through Throttle’s wrist-comm.

  She continued speeding toward the ship in her sights, dipping low to attack from under its belly.

  The small ship flashed across the Javelin’s bow, blacking out all the forward cameras for an instant.

  “Whoa! That bugger’s fast.”

  She felt small vibrations from magnetic rounds peppering the hull. She heard a hissing sound nearby and knew the Scorpia had been perforated. Still, she didn’t move from her flight path because that was exactly what the smaller ship wanted. Just as she was trying to draw the pirates away from her friends, the crew of the smallest pirate ship was doing the same for their compatriots.

  She glanced at the Gabriela to see the warehouse unit disappear into the cargo bay. They wouldn’t need much more time. The cargo door began to close, but it moved interminably slow. She hoped they were securing the unit as soon as it was brought inside. The cargo ship couldn’t enter jump speed until the doors were closed and the warehouse unit secure. Otherwise, it risked anything not tied down crashing right through the hull.

  She smoothed her flight path as she came up under the larger of the two remaining pirate ships. It was still turning toward her, and it had larger guns.

  Garrett fired. The stream of light bursts hit the belly of the pirate ship. One of the shots must’ve hit a fuel tank because the ship exploded outward in fire and debris, only to have the flames doused within a few seconds. Throttle rolled to avoid the deadly debris.

  “Uh-oh. Photon power cell is down to twenty percent,” he said.

  “The small ship is heading for the Gabriela,” Sylvian reported.

  She turned toward the cargo ship and searched for the last remaining pirates. Even with Sylvian’s help, trying to find a dark ship in a field of black was nearly impossible going off the ship’s cameras. She began doing rolls to scan the area.

  “There you are.” She powered forward and gave pursuit. When she figured out the ship’s strategy, she switched her wrist-comm to broadcast to her entire crew, knowing at least one of her crew on board the cargo ship had a comm channel already opened to talk with Sylvian, so they’d receive Throttle’s transmission without having to accept the communication request. “Gabriela, jump now!”

  The cargo ship began to vibrate.

  The pirates leveled out to where they had a direct shot to the Gabriela’s bridge.

  The Gabriela’s jump engines became blinding stars an instant before the ship was propelled forward faster than the eye could follow.

  The pirates fired too late.

  Throttle let out a breath and felt her muscles relax. “They’re safe.”

  As the Scorpia reached firing range, the pirate ship must’ve picked up the bogey and spun to face her.

  Garrett fired. Most of the shots missed, but two hit the ship broadside.

  “Please tell me I breached those guys,” Garrett said.

  The small ship veered off, revealing its name—BENDIX—written in large letters alongside the bridge. Beyond the name, two long burn marks ran down the sides. Air was spraying out around an airlock.

  Throttle grinned. “You got them.”

  Garrett leaned back. “Can’t get much luckier than that. Photon power cell’s below five percent. Another minute against them and we would’ve been sitting ducks.”

  She rotated the ship to where the Javelin came into sight. “Then let’s head back and get out of here.”

  “Captain, there’s another—”

  Sylvian’s transmission was smothered by the vibration of an explosion that shook Throttle’s teeth. “Look for the bogey!” she shouted as she pulled away, only to find one of the engines not responding. She glanced at her panel, which displayed more red lights than green lights. Her heart plummeted. “I lost the left nav engine.”

  She used the right engine to corkscrew out of the newcomer’s range. As she twisted the ship’s path downward, she talked to Sylvian. “Where is it, Sylvian?”

  “It’s above you now, at your ten o’clock, if Jade-8 was your twelve.”

  The problem with the Scorpia’s nav engines was that each engine was tilted slightly outward, which gave the ship more speed and stability in atmospheric conditions, but it also meant the ship couldn’t fly straight on a single engine.

  Throttle slowed the corkscrews to look out of each camera. She was still rotating, so the images were nearly blurred. As soon as she caught a glimpse, she veered toward it. “I won’t be able to fly in a straight line, Garrett, so fire when I stop.”

  “I only have a shot or two left in the power banks,” he said.

  “Then you’d better make them count.” She reversed the nav engine to counteract the rolls, and the ship’s rotation
slowed. The pirate ship was coming towards them.

  She sneered. “The Harlot.”

  Garrett fired. The pirate ship swerved but not before one of the shots hit its hull. Air burst out from a hole, but the ship kept coming.

  “I’m empty, boss,” Garrett said.

  The Harlot readjusted its flight path straight for the Scorpia. Throttle knew it was preparing to fire. She couldn’t take another round of hits. Already, the air was growing weak from all the breaches. Seeing the Javelin off to her left, Throttle made up her mind.

  The pirate ship was coming in close, likely assuming the Scorpia was wounded prey. It might have been wounded, but it’d never been prey.

  “You’d better hold on,” she said to Garrett as she grabbed the joystick and cranked the ship into tight rotations. Giving it full power, she made the turns even tighter. If she had gravity running on the ship, she’d be at twelve g by then. Instead, the only sensation of movement came from the camera images zooming by. Glimpses of the Harlot, the Javelin, Jade-8, the warehouse, and the stars. She focused on only the one ship. On raw gut instinct, she brought the ship shooting upward in its spiral.

  “Uh, Throttle?” Garrett asked the instant before impact.

  The Harlot slammed headfirst into the Scorpia’s stern. Shock waves knocked her hand from the joystick. A collision warning sounded. A breeze tugged at her hair. A ship in space should never have a breeze. She closed the bridge door, cutting off the wind, and silenced the alarms. Everything settled into quiet except for a woman’s voice.

  “Captain, come in. Please, Throttle, talk to us.”

  Throttle tried to maneuver, but all flight controls were gone.

  She could still hear air being sucked out of the ship, and she turned to Garrett to find him staring wide-eyed.

  “You’d better get your helmet on,” she said before reporting in to Sylvian. “We’re alive, but the Scorpia’s dead in the black.” She shivered and scanned the bridge. “We’ve lost environmentals, and what we do have left isn’t going to last long.”

  “We’re moving in to pick you up. Hang on.”

  Garrett stared at Throttle blankly. “You rammed them.”