“Exactly, fighting against the people of Jewel. They would not appreciate an ex-soldier during the negotiations regardless of his current rank or position.”
“This will be something that I will insist on.” Simmons said. “Mike, I can’t risk you at this stage.”
“I would agree.” Rosie Ire said. Her soft voice cut through the discussion. “You are too important to this mission to disappear off the radar without someone protecting your back.”
“We can discuss this later.” Leyland said.
“There may be some additional, perhaps unusual, requests that we will need to make of you.” Simmons said. He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “In my business I have often found that certain men, or groups of men, will seek to intercept or derail our negotiations. I may need you, in a short space of time, to remove any … troubling hindrances from our track. Would that cause a problem to you?”
Hammond paused in surprise. That was perhaps the politest request to assassinate a target that he had been given. He shrugged a little uncomfortably. He could not imagine that his posting to a ‘wetwork’ squad for six months would be common knowledge. The files had been sealed for a minimum of fifty years. Simmons apparently had more resources and capability than he had previously revealed.
“I am yours to command.” Hammond said.
Simmons smiled and stood. He offered his hand to Hammond.
“Thank you Lieutenant. We will discuss the specifics of your job when we arrive at the planet Jewel and are better acquainted with our welcome.”
Leyland stood and walked around the table.
“Can I have a private word Lieutenant.” Leyland said.
He ushered Hammond from the room.
*
“I am always confused about Leyland.” Ire said. “He always has to be so secretive, refusing to let anyone help, then he returns with everything accomplished. It makes me uncomfortable. I always feel he is plotting behind our back, waiting for the right moment to pounce.”
“He has always come through when we needed it.” Simmons said. He poured himself another drink, offering some to Ire which she declined.
“Has he really though?” Ire said. “We would not be on this mission if he had done his job properly preparing the council. Now he wants to disappear, breaking goodness knows how many laws and possibly working behind our backs.”
“He won’t break any laws this time.” Simmons said. “The planet of Jewel is very uptight on people breaking their regulations. If we do need things done, we can use the good Lieutenant. He is a well known troublemaker. We can set him up as a patsy, throw him to the wolves if things get tight.”
Chapter Ten
“A moment of your time Captain?” David Rawlins asked.
Captain Roger Stone motioned for the engineer to enter. Stone was going through today’s reports and signing off to say that he had studied them. The engines were nominal as expected however the hydroponics compartment was showing heightened levels of carbon dioxide. The overcrowded conditions within the ship were causing problems.
Stone sighed and closed his console. He motioned to Rawlins to sit and brought out his bottle of whiskey and two glasses.
“We are too crowded in this ship for them to be at each other’s throats.” Stone said.
“I’m not here to blame the Peace Officers.” Rawlins said. “Actually I do want to blame them but I’ll start with the two so-called engineers you gave me. They’re not working out.”
“What’s happened now?” Stone asked.
“I set one of them to man the swing shift overnight last night.” Rawlins said. “Nothing difficult, just keep an eye on the gauges, watch the engine pressure, and make a note of what the readings are on the hour every hour. That way, if the pressure varies more than ten percent from the start of the shift to the end of the shift, we can capture which system had problems first.”
“Because the failure of one system might put pressure on another system and force it offline.”
“Exactly.” Rawlins said. “So Tyler Hart had the evening shift, which he did diligently. He filled in the records showing the overall health of the electrical systems in the engine room as well as the engine room itself. Unfortunately one of the pressure valves was broken and the dial was stuck in the red. Hart didn’t notice that the dial was saying that the engine was about to blow up. He just ticked his box and moved on to the next one.”
“You picked up on it this morning at least.” Stone said.
“That’s not the point.” Rawlins said. “They are worse than useless. Forget the fighting during breakfast, we could have died in our sleep last night because of a stupid mistake. They are dangerous.”
“It will take us a week to get to Jewel.” Stone said. “We don’t have room for passengers. You will need to do the best you can and train them up.”
“At least we can get rid of them in Jewel.” Rawlins said.
In the sudden silence, Rawlins looked up from his drink at Stone.
“You didn’t, don’t tell me you did.” Rawlins said.
“We needed a crew.” Stone said. “They were the only people available and willing to sign on. I had to sign them on for the same terms as we signed on.”
“We’re stuck with them for five years? But they’re criminals, and incompetent criminals at that.”
“So are we, if you remember.” Stone said. “What are you going to do about the stuck dial?”
“I’m assuming that it’s just the dial which is stuck, not the valve itself.” Rawlins said. “When we drop out of hyperspace back into normal space, I’ll need to strip the main engines. It won’t take more than a few hours, but it will mean that we will be drifting helplessly for a short period while I confirm whether it’s the dial or the valve.”
“If it’s the dial, I assume we can live with that, but if it’s the valve it might take some extra work?” Stone asked.
“We have enough spares in the stores to replace half the engine.” Rawlins said. “I am confident we can throw something together.”
“Remind me before you do it.” Stone said. “Just don’t break my ship.”
The door opened and Lieutenant Hammond entered.
“I’ll just be going Captain.” Rawlins said. He stood, pushing his chair back.
“One moment Mr Rawlins if you will.” Hammond said. “I wanted to apologise to both of you for the behaviour of my officers earlier today. The officers are not accustomed to being forced to work closely with civilians, and especially criminals such as Hart. They were very quick to losing their temper.”
Rawlins thrust out his hand. As the two men shook hands, Stone brought out another glass and poured some more whiskey.
“I doubt that the whiskey has improved much since last night, but it is the only whiskey we have until Rawlins distils some more.” Stone said. He offered the glass to Hammond.
Hammond sat, staring at the glass dubiously before drinking it.
“Are you legally allowed to distil your own whiskey?” Hammond asked after he had finished coughing.
“We are outside all legal jurisdictions.” Rawlins said. “Once we are beyond the Lagrange point of a planet, we are considered to be in international space. That’s the position where the gravitational pull of the planet is equalised by the pull from the sun, the moon, and any other nearby bodies. Only the Imperial laws can affect us, and none of them mention anything about alcohol.”
“The Lagrange point, that’s where they build the space station right?” Hammond asked.
“Usually yes.” Rawlins said. “Otherwise they would have to continually power the space station to stop it falling out of orbit. That would be stupid right?”
“Probably, I’m glad I’m just a Peace Officer.” Hammond said. He looked at his glass hopefully. “A toast to more whiskey?”
Chapter Eleven
“Ten minutes until lights out.”
Stan was lying on his back on the lower bunk cleaning his Birkeland rifle. This w
as one of the new Gauss rifles that had been developed exclusively for Peace Officers. Although still a prototype, Stan had managed to obtain his through various means.
“I’m so tired.”
He was looking forward to getting some sleep. The sergeant had worked them hard today building the mezzanine level. They had not built stairs yet, instead they used a knotted rope to climb up and down. Lifting the bunk beds up was perhaps the most difficult part of the job. Now the mezzanine was complete: the lower area was set up as a rec area; the upper area for bedrooms.
Lea poked her head from the upper bunk where she was cleaning her rifle.
“Aww, the poor baby.” Lea said. “Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?”
Some of the Peace Officers laughed. Stan flushed.
“Perhaps if the sergeant didn’t have such a bee in his bonnet and force us to labour all day building this platform, I wouldn’t be so tired.”
“Perhaps if you had controlled yourself earlier instead of hitting the little man, we wouldn’t have to work quite so hard.” Lea said.
“Settle down people.”
The sergeants voice floated up from the lower floor where he was writing the daily reports. The Peace Officers quietened for a moment before they continued, talking in a low voice.
“It was a good fight.”
“It was not. One punch and he was down.”
“Did you see the glare the Lieutenant got from the Captain?” Lea said. “I thought he was going to punch him out.”
“Who would win in a fight between the Lieutenant and the Captain?” Stan asked.
“It’s home territory, I’d say the Captain.”
“The lieutenant.”
“Definitely the Lieutenant.”
“What about between the Lieutenant and the Engineer?” Lea asked.
“That’s a difficult one.” Stan said. “Rawlins is built like a bear. Engineering must seriously give you muscles.”
“I’d still say the Lieutenant, his glare gives me the creeps.” Lea said. “Besides he has had the training, he was in the army before he joined the Peace Officers.”
“Rawlins might have been a soldier, you never know.” Stan said. “For that matter so could those two pukes Tyler Hart and James Rivan.”
“Rivan’s not a puke.” Lea said. “He’s kinda nice.”
“Lea’s got a boyfriend.” Stan said. “Lea and Rivan up a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”
“Seriously Stan?” Lea said. “You’ll never grow up will you?”
“Do you think there’s anything between Paul Simmons and Rosie Ire?” Someone asked.
“Five minutes.” The sergeant called.
Stan sat up and placed his Gauss rifle carefully into his locker. Regulations forbade the rifle’s power pack from being stored in the same locker, so Stan placed it under his bed. He could see the other Peace Officers doing the same.
“Simmons and Ire?” Lea said. “I don’t think so. She’s leggy and very pretty but she’s very full of herself if you know what I mean.”
Stan shook his head.
“I mean she has a very exaggerated sense of her own self worth.” Lea said. “She’s arrogant and self absorbed. She thinks she can do better for herself and Simmons is too blind to see that. I think she’s also hiding something.”
“Is this Female 101, how do you know this?”
“It’s obvious Stan.” Lea said.”Call it a woman’s intuition if you can’t see what’s in front of your eyes.”
“Lights out, boys and girls.” The sergeant called.
The lights turned out. Soft blue lights under each of the bunk beds lit the bedroom.
“Why is it obvious?” Stan asked.
A cough from another bunk bed told him that his whisper was not quiet enough.
Stan lay back enjoying the quiet comfort of his bed. For a few moments there was peace then he felt a slight shudder. A loud klaxon alarm started to blare.
“We are under attack, this is not a drill.”
“Pirates.”
Chapter Twelve
“Pirates.”
Captain Roger Stone burst into the bridge. He cut the klaxon.
“Tell me what’s happened.” Stone said.
“One moment we were fine and happy in hyperspace, the next moment something dragged us back into real space.” The pilot said. “There is a small spaceship approaching fast.”
“Where is it?”
“According to the ICRS it is thirty degrees off our starboard, negative fifteen on the ecliptic plane, about twenty five thousand miles.”
“Can we not jump back into hyperspace?” Hammond asked. He had followed Stone into the bridge and was standing at the back of the bridge.
“To be able to jump back into hyperspace we need time to work out our current coordinates and then create a new course.” Stone said. “Can your men man the main gun?”
“I’ll get right on that.” Hammond said. He ran from the bridge, bumping into Mike Leyland at the entrance.
“Sir, you need to return to your cabin and remain there.” Hammond nodded at the trooper guarding the entrance to the bridge. “Escort Mr Leyland back to his cabin.”
Stone keyed his comms.
“Engineering.”
“How long until we spool the jump drives up?” Stone asked.
“I’ve already started the procedure Captain.” Rawlins replied. “We should be ready to jump in the next ten minutes.”
“Excellent.” Stone said. “I need the main engines now.”
“I still have concerns about the main engines Captain.” Rawlins said. “If the problem is a stuck valve rather than a broken dial, it could burn out the engines.”
“We are sitting ducks here Rawlins.” Stone said. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Aye Captain. Give me two minutes.”
Stone stared at his console for a long moment. He had never heard Rawlins sound so worried.
“Run the coordinates and get a new course plotted.” Stone said.
He pressed another button on his console, this would allow him to broadcast on the emergency frequency.
“Unidentified craft. Do not approach any closer or you will be fired upon.”
He secured the comms. The pilot was staring at him.
“What do we do?”
“I want a five second thrust from the forward port thrusters and two seconds from the upper deck thrusters.” Stone said. “That should be sufficient to swing the nose around so we are facing them at least.”
“Five second forward port and two second upper aye.” The pilot said.
The view through the bridge window changed as she expertly turned the spaceship.
“The pirate ship is dead ahead Captain however we do not have main engines.”
“I want a full burst on all upper deck thrusters and port thrusters, both forward and rear on my command.” Stone said.
The pilot carefully locked these options in on her console. Now only one button would be required for the burst.
Stone keyed his comms again.
“Lieutenant, are we ready yet?” Stone asked.
“I have several of my Peace Officers unpacking the missiles.” Hammond said. “Two of them have experience of missile weapons, however they never shot missiles in space. We will be ready in a minute.”
“Quick as you can.” Stone said.
The bridge windows glowed red for a moment.
“Lasers.” The pilot said. “He’s started to shoot at us. Why haven’t we been destroyed? He hit us directly on the bridge.”
“It’s because of distance, he’s out of range.” Stone said. “When he’s closer, the laser will not be quite so diffused.”
The lights on one board of the pilot’s console lit up green.
“We have main engines again.” The pilot said.
“Wait a moment, we can do this right if we’re patient.” Stone said.
He keyed his comms again.
“Hammond here.”
&nbs
p; “Lieutenant, I want some good news here.”
“We have loaded the missiles onto the magazine rack.” Hammond said. “We had problems seating the magazine, however that is done now. The targeting computer is online.”
“I have main engines back so, when I make my move, be ready to fire.” Stone said.
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