Sykora shrugged. “I don’t think so. Verrikoth will contact us when he’s ready. Though you can be sure he knows we’re here by now.”
“Is he going to be upset about the battle station?”
The lieutenant actually considered that. Then he sighed. “Probably. But I’m not going to lose sleep over it. It attacked as soon as we came out of hyperspace.”
Six hours later, the corvette pulled in close to the planet (while still maintaining a high orbit) and still the locals had not made a peep of acknowledgement. However, as they pulled in, they noticed that every one of the ships was scanning Fury with every sensor that they could.
“Active sensor sweeps coming in from all four of those ships, Captain,” the sensor officer reported, staring at his console. “They’re not showing the least amount of restraint.”
Sykora chuckled. “All right, Tom, Yankee search. Hit them with a ping of our own. I’m a little tired of these games. And make sure you get everything you can from the sweep.”
The sensor watch beamed. “Yes, sir! I’ll get the serial numbers off the hulls for you, Captain!” he said excitedly.
“That’s fine, Tom. Make sure you get them all,” Sykora said with a smile.
The man blushed. “Yes, Captain,” he said, lowering his gaze, embarrassed.
The captain turned to his communications officer. “Open a channel to the planet. Use the encryption and channel codes I’m sending to your terminal now.” He pressed a few controls on his own console to get the information over to communications.
“Got it, Captain,” the man replied. “I’m sending a hail now.”
It took about a minute for a response to come through. A hissing, clicking voice replied, one filled with anger and malice. “You have some serious courage coming here, Republic.”
Sykora grimaced. “You and I have an understanding, Captain,” he said, his voice firm but calm. “Don’t get too much attitude. I only came here to speak. A small situation has come up; one that I thought you would be interested in hearing about.”
“You Republic Navy presume much,” the voice came back. “We have an agreement, this iss true. But you assume we will move to your commandss.” He spoke Basic fluently, but all of the ‘ess’ sounds in his sibilance were pronounced.
“I don’t assume anything, Captain Verrikoth,” Sykora replied. “But I come with a matter that concerns us both. And you know that we allow each other to tend to our own affairs.”
“And yet you are here?” The voice was suspicious.
He sighed. “Captain, let me ask you this. Do you think I would come to Trullium without any other escort with hostile intent?”
There was another pause. “Republic Navy sometimess do foolish thing.”
“I’m not a fool, Captain,” Sykora told him. “But we do need to meet.”
“Very well. Bring your shuttle down, we will discusss your important matter.”
“Now you’re insulting me, Verrikoth. We each send a shuttle, and we meet up in space. The shuttles will link up through their airlocks. And don’t try anything cute, Captain. We really do need to speak. You can bring one assistant only, and I will only bring one. Anybody tries anything and all of our ships will open fire.”
There was the sound of hissing laughter. “Republic Navy not so foolish after all. My sshuttle will launch in thirty minutess.” The connection cut.
“That was a dirty trick,” Lieutenant Vos put in sourly.
Sykora shrugged. “I expected he’d try something like that. And there’s not a chance in hell am I going down to the planet’s surface without a battalion of Marines with me.”
“And at least a battleship in orbit,” Vos said darkly.
The shuttles linked up about fifty kilometers from Fury’s bow, about the same distance from two of Verrikoth’s ships as well. Both sides had their weapons powered and their shields up; no one was taking any chances. The Republic shuttle was very angular, octagonal in the aft section, but ovoid toward the front, with a pair of engine nacelles attached at the ventral side aft. The pirate shuttle was much boxier, little more than a rectangular shape with a pair of nacelles on the sides. The two shuttles docked with some difficulty, as they were not meant for this sort of maneuver. In the end, the pirate shuttle extended a flexible plastic boarding sleeve, completely covering the Republic shuttle’s airlock. Once there was hard seal, both ships opened their airlocks so they could speak.
With the airlocks open, the zheen didn’t waste any time. He grabbed the bar above the airlock door and pulled himself through. He floated down the short tunnel to the other ship, then grabbed the edge of the airlock and pulled himself inside the Republic ship. He landed lightly on the deck and then stood up to look at his ‘hosts’.
Lieutenant Wallace Sykora looked like many humans that Verrikoth had met over the years. Pale skin, with a small amount of fur on the top of his head, with a small amount of fur just under his olfactory on his head. He was dressed in the same gray and red uniform that most of those Verrikoth had seen over the years would wear. Verrikoth wondered if all humans wore that same sort of outfit in the Republic. That seemed to be the only thing he ever saw them wear, though he was willing to admit that it had been more than six decades since he had been in Republic space.
Verrikoth looked much like most of his zheen brethren, as far as Sykora could tell. His exoskeleton was a dull purple, though he had white scars running over his arms and thorax, as well as his neck and face. He also had luminescent tattoos on his neck and arms of designs that Sykora didn’t recognize. They were etched into his carapace in a yellow color that seemed to glow as though they were electric. He was dressed in a shipsuit cut to fit his frame, and a heavy pulser holstered at his hip. He also had a brace of knives on a bandolier across his chest, and another blade in a scabbard on his right wrist. On his left wrist was a small datapad with a retractable antenna. His multifaceted eyes seemed to shine in the interior lights of the shuttle.
“Lieutenant Ssykora very brave to bring his one sship into my sstar ssystem,” Verrikoth said in a hissing growl.
Sykora shrugged. “This isn’t about bravery,” he replied. “As I said before, there’s an urgent matter that you needed to be made aware of.”
“Sso you keep ssaying,” the zheen said irritably, his antennae flaring straight. “Ssay what you came to ssay and then leave before my patience endss.”
“There’s a navy reserve vessel that is currently going through the Cluster,” Sykora began. “The Admiral did not send it, which means that either it isn’t actually a reserve ship or it’s been sent by military intelligence to try and determine the status of the Argos Cluster.”
“What are you telling me?” the zheen raged. “The Admiral iss no longer in command of his own fleet? That you are abrogating our deal?”
“I am abrogating nothing,” Sykora snapped. “I just need you and your people to keep an eye out for this ship. And if you should catch it, you should blow it apart and kill everyone aboard.”
The pirate’s antennae flicked in surprise. “Republic Navy wants a Reserve vessel destroyed and crew killed? Unuzual.” His voice buzzed on the last word.
“Either way, the ship needs to be taken care of,” the lieutenant informed him. “Unless, of course, you want our arrangement to end.”
“Perhapss I do,” Verrikoth replied snidely. “If one sship cauzez this much trouble, perhaps this arrangement iz not as profitable as it once was.”
Sykora sighed, eyeing the defiant pirate before him. “We have a good working relationship, Captain. It’s been very profitable. The Admiral allows you to go where you like in the Cluster and turns a blind eye to your activities in exchange for a cut. I think you’ve managed to do quite well for yourself since we started this.”
Verrikoth waved a hand dismissively. “I could have done just as well without hiz… help.”
“On four separate occasions, most notably four months ago in the Kigri system, I have allowed your ships to… operate
without my interference. I also have bagged a number of your competitors, making it easier for you to maintain your activities.” The lieutenant shrugged. “If our arrangement has ended, then Fury will open fire on your ships in this system and destroy them all.”
The zheen bristled. “Your sship iz military, yess, but it is only one. A corvette iz not a particularly powerful sship. Limited ammunition. You couldn’t sstop all of my sships.”
A slow, nasty smile spread over the lieutenant’s face. “So you’re saying we’re done here?”
His antennae drooped. “I ssuppoze I am.” With speed the lieutenant wouldn’t have thought possible, his hand whipped one of the knives free from his bandolier and slashed the lieutenant’s throat. Blood fountained from the wound and Sykora’s hands flew to his throat, gagging. He collapsed to the deck of the shuttle before pitching over on his side, a pool spreading outward from him. Verrikoth’s fellow, a Severite armed with a pulse rifle, raised his weapon and fired, killing Sykora’s pilot with a hit to the forehead. The catlike creature stepped forward and pumped three more shots into the pilot’s chest.
“A waste,” Verrikoth said softly. “We did have a good working relationship. But I think it iz time for us to expand our operationss past what the good Admiral had in mind.” He activated his communicator on his wrist. “All ships, open fire on the Fury. Take it out.”
Both pirate vessels fired. Rail guns sent a storm of metal hammering into the corvette’s shields. Grasers blasted against the corvette’s shields, which was causing them to weaken. The other two ships moved up from their positions in lower orbits, targeting the outnumbered Republic ship. They weren’t in range yet, but they would be in less than a minute.
“What the hell?” Vos demanded as his ship was suddenly under attack. “Helm, go evasive now!” The helmsman responded immediately and the ship began to accelerate, banking hard to port, the inertial compensators barely managing to keep everyone from being flung against the bulkheads. “What happened to the Captain?” he bellowed.’
“I’m only reading two life signs aboard the shuttles, Lieutenant,” the sensor officer reported looking up from his displays. “One of them is zheen, the other is Severite.”
“Damn it,” Vos said, dropping into the command chair. “All right, I’m assuming command as of this date. Tactical, lock all weapons on the closest ship and open fire.” He smiled grimly. “Lock a missile on the pirate shuttle and destroy it.” He allowed himself one instant to mourn his captain. The man was a good officer and he had done his job well, but he had foolishly brought them here to this system, arrogantly assuming that his Republic uniform and Fury’s presence would protect him against someone who clearly held no regard for anyone’s life except his own.
It would take every ounce of skill he and his people had to get out of this viper’s nest.
The pirate shuttle detached from the other and began racing for the planet’s surface, while the Republic shuttle remained in position, unmoving. A Sierra missile launched from Fury’s starboard launcher, locked on to Verrikoth’s tiny craft. A short pursuit, as weapon shots were traded back and forth between the Republic and pirate vessels, and the missile caught up to the shuttle. The small ship tried to evade, tried to make a hard turn up and to the starboard, but it was too late. The Sierra clipped its ventral hull and detonated. The vessel exploded in a ball of expanding gas and warped and twisted metal.
“Good shooting, Guns,” Vos congratulated. “Helm, go to port three zero, climb two-seven. Guns, open up on the pirate as soon as she’s in range.”
“We’re too far away, XO,” Senior Chief Ros Dragomirov informed him.
“We won’t be,” Vos said. “When we’re done with that maneuver, he’s going to be right where we want him to be. You just make sure that you have the weapons ready, Mister Dragomirov.”
A particularly vicious hit struck Fury on the port side, causing all of the bridge crew to grab hold of their stations hard to avoid being tossed across the bridge. Apparently, things would not be so simple in this fight.
“Direct hit to the port quarter!” the sensor operator called out. “They launched a missile at us and it got through the shields. Hull breach on deck two; sections twenty through twenty four.”
“Seal it off,” Vos ordered. Not good. If the pirates had already breached the shields and punched through the hull, they were in deep trouble.
Verrikoth sat in the pilot’s seat of the Republic shuttle. His little ruse with the other ship had worked like a charm, though the zheen was willing to admit simply sitting there waiting for his pilot to try and escape the missile was incredibly nerve wracking. Clearly, the Severite had been unable to evade the Republic weapon and had been killed with the shuttle. The zheen shrugged to himself. It was no matter. He had more shuttles and other pilots. The cat had decided that he was going to try and save the ship instead of simply remote piloting it from here and had underestimated the tracking capabilities of Republic missiles.
But now he had this shuttle to replace the one he just lost. And his ships were keeping Fury busy and as he watched one of his ships blasted a hole through the corvette’s portside shields and then planted a missile into the hole, breaching the hull.
Well now, that makes things interesting. He fully expected that, despite his earlier bravado, Fury would make short work of those two ships. They might have gotten in a few good licks, but the corvette probably would prevail over his modified merchant ships. However, they might be able to keep it busy enough and damage it enough for the other two ships in system to finish it off. Though, with that big hit, perhaps he might get through this battle with more than one of those ships still functional.
Fury tried to accelerate toward one of the merchant ships, while both of them peppered her with metal slugs from their rail guns. The corvette’s shields were flaring against the continuous strain from the hits. A salvo got through a hole in the shields and Verrikoth could see another explosion, this time against the ventral side of the corvette. It wasn’t a big hit, but his pirate ships were starting to nibble the interloper to death.
But the Republic ship wasn’t done yet. Reeling from the hit to her belly, the corvette lashed out at the closest of his ships. High powered grasers and a hail of rail gun slugs battered the modified freighter, smashing the shields until they collapsed. The slugs slammed into the hull, tearing a massive hole through metal as though it was paper. Verrikoth grimaced. He’d known for a long time that his converted freighters were not warships, but seeing them in action now against a proper warship was disheartening to say the least. Another salvo from the corvette finished what the first had started, tearing through the hull of the ship completely and blasting out the other side. An instant later the ship broke apart, the burning aft section of the ship floating free from the dead hulk of the forward section.
The tide seemed to turn then, as the second of Verrikoth’s ships tried valiantly to attack this shark that had swam into its protected cove. Laser cannons fired, more rail guns fired and the Fury turned to bear down on this annoying fish that was attempting to hurt her. Just as the Fury cut loose with its own weapons, the freighter opened up with a full volley of missiles. It looked as though the captain of that ship had loosed every weapon he had in his launchers. A second later, the Republic ship’s weapons blasted the weakened ship’s shields and battered the ship to a twisted hulk, burning and listing to port. The ship was now dead in space, its atmosphere ignited, power out, crew dead.
“Damn,” Verrikoth breathed, watching the carnage. He’d hoped for better from his people. But then the missiles crashed into the Fury’s bow. A titanic explosion rocked the Republic corvette, an explosion so powerful that the ship was actually blown off course. When the light from the explosion faded, Fury’s bow was both torn outward and crumpled inward. The explosion had blasted away the controls to the corvette and now the ship was listing badly, slightly turning to starboard.
“Excellent hit!” the zheen crowed. Perhaps his second
ship’s death wasn’t as big a problem as he’d thought. The corvette wasn’t finished, but it was hurt, perhaps mortally. He checked the shuttle’s sensor feeds, marveling at the range and quality of the scan. He would happily add this ship and its tech to his operations. But he could see his other two ships, Hector and Ajax moving up into range.
The whole forward section of the ship was gone. Able Spacer Dava Ricks picked herself up off the deck from where she’d been flung by the impact. She had a cut on her forehead and a goose egg forming there. As she stood, the corridor swam and she pressed a hand to her injury from where her head had collided with the bulkhead. Dava managed to stumble into the engineering spaces, where pure chaos reigned. Chemicals and steam gushed from ruptured conduits, Dava could see three of the engineering ratings laying on the deck, dead, covered in plasma burns from the ruptured conduits. Alarm klaxons were blaring and the heat from a fire.
“Anyone alive in here?” she managed to shout.
There was a crash of metal. “Who is that?” a voice called back to her.
“Ricks!” she bellowed over the cacophony of the maelstrom in here. “Where are you?”
“Back here!” the voice came back. Dava climbed over the debris, trying to keep out of the flames.
“I’m coming! I’m coming to you!” Dava shouted. She picked over the metal to see Ensign Kal Marcos stuck under a beam. “Hang on, sir,” she called to him. “I’ll get you out of there.” She grabbed hold of the beam and pulled and the ensign pulled his leg free, screaming in pain from the broken limb. Stooping down, she helped him get to his feet. Leaning on her, the two of them managed to get clear of the rubble and back into the main area of engineering. Finding one of the chairs, Dava eased the officer down.
“Is… is there anyone else left alive?” Marcos gasped, leaning back but trying to keep his gaze on her.
Dava grabbed a metal bar from the debris on the deck and fistful of loose wire and yanked it free from the nearest console. Kneeling down next to the ensign, she took hold of his calf and then felt up and down his leg for the break. He gagged in pain, trying desperately not to scream. Eventually, she found it, mid-thigh. Taking hold of his calf, she jerked it hard, setting it back in place. This time he did scream, a sound of pure agony, then he collapsed, limp. It took a moment, but then he lifted his head again. “Thanks,” he growled, gritting his teeth against the pain.
Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 Page 49