“From what I'm seeing it would take them weeks to repair the engines and there's too much damage to their emitter systems to even try to get into hyperspace.” Ayan offered.
“All his other ships are either in the same or worse shape,” Agameg advised.
“He's cornered,” Jason commented.
Jake nodded slowly. “This couldn't be worse. I'm going aboard personally. Have a team assembled and order the Clever Dream to land on the Triton as soon as they finish recovering pilots.”
“Are you sure that's a good idea Jake? You're the most experienced commander aboard.” Oz objected.
“I'm also not sending someone else aboard that ship. If the worst happens the only person I want to blame is myself. How are we for manpower Stephanie?”
“We have sixteen squads left, four with boarding qualifications,” she replied over the comm.
“I'll take three. Are we covered after that if we have an incursion on the Triton?”
“Barely, but yes, we're covered. Do you know something I don't Captain? Should we be expecting a boarding party?”
“You never know. This group of ships could be just a part of a larger syndicate. I'll try to get all the intel I can from the Captain when I board the Palamo.”
“The Clever Dream's here, good luck sir.” Stephanie said before closing the channel.
“You have the bridge,” Jake said to Ayan. “Just get the Triton inside the energy barrier and establish a micro wormhole so you can monitor things outside the field.”
Ayan took a deep breath, let it out and nodded. “I'm ready, barely.”
Jake stood, Ayan caught his hand. He looked to her in mild surprise. His eyes met her deep blues and he recognized her concern. It had been a long time since he'd seen anyone worry about him, it was disarming.
“Be careful,” she whispered.
“I'm sorry about earlier. I'll see you soon,” he reassured.
Chapter 8
Relentless
The running lights along the hall ceiling whipped by like illuminated dots and dashes as Nerine's bare feet caused the old deck grating to clang and creak under the pressure of her hurried gait. Her left arm, shoulder and cheek stung unlike anything she'd felt before, the mild pain killers she had hidden in her crew pouch made it bearable but she knew there would be scarring.
Other crew members moved hurriedly through the narrow halls and compartments, affecting emergency repairs. The Triton and her fighters had taken out the entire squadron, most of their support ships and the Palamo was completely disabled. She never had a great affinity for engineering or power systems but she knew that when the crew started pulling cable free from the corridors and cross wiring things that they were in serious trouble.
She knew it wasn't worth the effort. Captain Gammin had to surrender, there was no other logical option, especially if the holograms she'd seen when she visited her father in the Enreega system were true and Captain Jacob Valance was commanding the Triton. He was a bounty hunter, a privateer and a criminal wanted across the galaxy. If Captain Gammin actually thought he'd survive an encounter with him he was crazier than she could have imagined.
She stopped at a ladder leading to the deck below. The lifts were out, she'd have to climb down with one arm. The ship rocked violently. The air stirred her hair and she heard the distant squeaking and grinding as an emergency bulkhead door slid into place. For a moment everyone stopped what they were doing. Somewhere on the ship, and not too far off, part of the ship had decompressed.
It would be easy to hate the Triton, her fighter pilots and her Captain, but if the rumour was true, if Captain Valance was actually a freedom fighter and not the scourge the Order of Eden made him out to be then Captain Gammin was on the wrong side. He was a slaver, and the first thing she'd heard about Captain Valance was that he freed slaves. She hoped Kadri wouldn't regret sending the distress message to the Triton earlier that day.
“There you are!” David shouted from below. “What happened?”
“I got caught when something exploded in the hall.”
“That looks bad,” he climbed up nimbly. He was an engine room grunt, with enough mechanical know how to fix any of the old systems on the third hand carrier and enough sense to move very slowly up the chain of command. Out doing your superiors too quickly was a good way to disappear mysteriously. “Here, loop the Captain's bag around my neck then get on my back. I'll climb down for both of us.”
Nerine nodded and looped her Captain's sealed satchel around David's neck. Wrapping her arm and legs around David was painful but better than staying in the corridor. The bridge was the safest place and they would be welcome there. “Is it true that Captain Valance is trying to board? This isn't the station firing on us?” Nerine asked, still trying not to get her hopes for freedom up.
“Aye, Gammin's trying to escape, he just didn't want to leave this behind. He'll leave you in your condition though.”
“I know. It would be cheaper for him to buy a new cabin girl than getting me fixed up.”
David carefully set foot on the lower deck and put her on her feet. “Don't worry, I'll make sure we make it through,” he reassured.
“If what I heard about Captain Valance is true we won't have to worry.”
David gave the satchel back, knowing that, with her beauty spoiled, that bag was all that could make her valuable to the Captain. “Don't get your hopes up. Gammin's doing everything he can to get away and he's not taking chances. He activated the detonators on the crews raiding the core of the station.”
“What? So they're all-”
David nodded, his square jaw set. “Everyone on the cutting crew is gone. I'm pretty sure the only thing keeping him from doing the same to us is the fact that he's still aboard and there's a chance we could get the engines going. Just stay quiet and do what you have to until I find us a way out.”
They rounded a corner. The bridge was only twenty paces down the main corridor. Captain Gammin spun on his heel. “Finally! Get your ass over here!”
Nerine started to run but was knocked off her feet as something collided with the outer hull. The hall lights went out, leaving only the white and green glow of the bridge lights ahead. To her right she heard the sounds of metal grinding against metal and realized she was right in front of a primary airlock door.
David hurriedly helped her to her feet as sparks showered the deck in front of her.
Captain Gammin was just getting to his feet. “Throw it!”
She did her best and it landed half way.
“Stupid bitch! Pick it up and get in here! We have to leave!”
She braved the sparks, raising her right arm and trying to duck under them. One caught in her hair and she burned the back of her finger batting it out. David was right behind her as she picked up the bag, ran to the Captain and handed it to him.
“Get these doors closed!” he shouted as he pounded the emergency seal button. The door inched part way out of the wall, the motor squealed with the effort of moving it further but failed. "God dammit! If we don't get those doors closed the bridge can't separate! Hurry!"
David turned to check it. “That impact warped the jamb,” he reported, kicking the leading edge of the door hard. It made no difference. “I need to pry it straight,” he brought out a ten centimetre tool and with a flick of his wrist it extended into a meter long pry bar.
“We're being boarded! Hurry!”
The other slaves on the bridge looked near panic, even more so after looking at Nerine's injuries. Paudi, the First Officer looked at her and shook his dark brown and green pocked head slowly. “I think we leave this one behind. She is damaged.”
Captain Gammin looked at her and was immediately furious.
Nerine cringed. She was in enough pain already, she raised her good arm to fend off what she knew might come.
“What have you gone and gotten yourself into now? You're not worth the clothes I bought you!” He took two quick steps and snatched her wrist.
/> “A pipe exploded! I didn't fall or hurt myself on purpose this time!”
“It's too late now, you're going to welcome this bastard when he comes aboard!” He shoved her into the hall, nearly knocking her down. “Now stay there!”
She knew what was going to happen. The people breaking into the ship would come inside the hall and Captain Gammin would press a button on his amulet. She'd explode and kill whoever was nearest. It was quicker than being poisoned, the more common death the slave implants provided. Nerine had seen more crew members than she could count killed in such a way after the Captain or his First Officer caught them doing something they weren't supposed to be doing.
Yellow and white sparks filled the corridor behind her as she looked to David, who had stopped working altogether. She tried not to cry, but her lip quivered, her eyes watered and it felt like her world was collapsing into itself. Captain Gammin walked back to the centre of the circular bridge and turned around. He caught sight of her staring at David. “Do you want to join her? Get back to work!” he shouted.
David stood slowly and dropped the pry bar. With determined steps he walked down the corridor and stopped beside her.
“No! No, you can survive. Go with him, do what you have to,” Nerine pleaded through shuddering sobs.
David gave her a small smile and shook his head slowly. “Couldn't live with myself if I just watched this happen,” he took her uninjured hand.
The airlock door fell with an angry sounding clatter, shaking the deck grating underfoot.
Nerine looked into David's brown eyes. They were so strong, steady. His hand was firm, comforting. He had looked after her when the Captain wasn't looking ever since the emergency services transport leaving the Enreega system was captured and she was taken on.
“Close your eyes baby,” he whispered.
She let out a shuddering breath and did so. As someone came into the corridor just behind she felt a crack in her chest that told her the compounds implanted in her were about to mix. In a few heartbeats her life would end.
A hand grabbed her head roughly and tilted it to the side. Her eyes popped open at the feeling of a pinch on her neck. She watched as a figure in black and crimson armour grabbed David and pressed some kind of injector to his neck as well. It was mounted on the end of some kind of control unit at the end of his arm.
Urgent hands grabbed her and she was pressed into the hall behind several other black clad boarders. “Do you feel any pressure, any unusual warmth in your chest?” One of them, a woman, asked her hurriedly.
She realized then that there was just the opposite, like something cool was resting on her chest and shook her head. “Not warm. It's like someone put a cold glass of water on me.”
“That's the nanobots working, they're disabling your slave device. Stay there, don't move.”
David was sat down beside her and they were put in restraints. The boarder's movements were professional and quick. Before she knew it they were sitting in the middle of several black clad, heavily armed soldiers and she was watching the man who had injected her and David, saving their lives and most likely his own, stalk down the corridor towards Captain Gammin.
Gammin drew his pistol and fired several times. The dark figure stopped as several rounds struck him full on.
Nerine flinched at the sound of each shot, feared for their rescuer and silently prayed that he could somehow survive.
“Kneel,” said the leader of the boarders. His voice sent a shiver through her. She could hear his anger, the strain in his voice as he restrained it.
“He has a personal shield,” David whispered. “You're right, it's Valance, it has to be.”
“So you've heard of him. Good,” Was all one of the boarders keeping watch over the corridor said from behind. The pair could hear him smiling.
“You'll never take this ship! Every crew member has a charge installed and there are enough of them aboard to rupture every compartment!”
Captain Valance slowly drew his long coat aside and drew his heavy sidearm. “My people and I would survive. We have an easy escape route. I'll make sure you don't though,” he levelled the wide barrel of his sidearm at the First Officer. “Tell me the codes to deactivate the slave implants,” he demanded.
“Or what? You'll start killing people?”
Gammin jumped as Captain Valance fired at his First Officer, who ducked behind a console just in time. Instead of relenting he fired again, waited as the console erupted with blue and white sparks. “You and this man don't have an implant. That makes you the people responsible. Slavers.” He fired several more times, each round exploding into and around the ruined console.
The First Officer panicked and ran for better cover. Captain Valance caught him with a shot to the shoulder, blasting the limb part way off with a cauterizing thermite explosive round.
Nerine watched wide eyed as the First Officer's momentum carried him wailing to the deck, falling in a smouldering heap. Jacob Valance took a step closer to get a clearer shot and fired four more times, ruining the man's torso and head. His aim settled back on Captain Gammin as the thermite rounds still sizzled and spat sparks out of his First Officer's corpse. “Give me the codes for your ships and the control unit and I'll let you live. You can take anything that's left in the launch bay and leave.”
Captain Gammin hurriedly pulled his ornate oval amulet off and tossed it to Captain Valance. It landed on the deck at his feet. He picked it up, keeping his weapon pointed at Gammin, who was holding his hands up high. “The code is dominator!”
Jacob Valance clutched the amulet in his hand for a moment. “You're lying,” he said flatly.
“How could you-” Gammin blubbered. “I mean, you didn't even enter it!”
“He must have a neural link that allows him to communicate digitally,” David whispered.
“What is the code?” Captain Valance asked in a quiet, menacing tone.
“Dominator with zeroes instead of O's.”
Jacob Valance stood completely still for a moment. The amulet was clutched in one hand, the chain dangled and caught the light from the bridge consoles. His other arm was extended, his heavy pistol levelled with a steady bead on Captain Gammin's head.
No one moved, not his boarders, not the crew on the bridge, not the crew trapped behind them in the corridor. Nerine didn't want to breathe in the near complete silence and stillness. Her gaze was fixed on the figure that seemed to fill the broad corridor, his black long coat was like a shadow that extended from the protective hood of his armoured vacuum suit. Crimson streaks ran like blood through the creases and edges of the unusual armour. His feet were steady, his thick treaded boots were like pillar footings.
“Thank you.” Captain Valance said finally.
Captain Gammin sighed, eyeing the barrel of the gun pointed at him dubiously. “I have a shipment of industrial diamonds in the hold. I'll trade them for ten slaves so I can properly man a hyperspace capable ship I have in the hold I'll be out of your hair-”
“Kneel.”
The little hope in Captain Gammin's eyes died, panic threatened as he stood struck still.
“Kneel.” Captain Valance repeated. He wasn't yelling, he didn't seem out of control, only deeply, irrecoverably angry.
Captain Gammin did so, his pristine velvet pants picking up dust the moment his knees touched the deck. “Okay, take everything! I just need a ship."
Captain Valance placed the amulet in his coat interior pocket slowly and rechecked his aim. The long pistol was levelled at Gammin's face. The barrel was as steady as a structural beam, unwavering.
"You said I could-”
“I lied.” Captain Valance pulled the trigger only once, obliterating Captain Gammin's face and everything behind it.
Nerine and David flinched when the shot went off. As she watched her Captain's corpse slump to the floor, steam and flickering light rolling out of his ruined head she realized that most of the boarding crew around her had jumped as well. No one expected
him to actually kill Captain Gammin in cold blood. She didn't know what she felt, she was numb as she watched Captain Valance casually shove his sidearm back into its holster and turn to face the boarding crew. “Treat her injuries.” he pointed straight at her. “Patch into the ship systems and inform the crew that we've taken control and we'll be injecting them with nanobots to destroy their implants. I'll determine if the ship is safe and worth taking with the help of the existing staff.”
“Yes sir,” two of the boarding crew replied emphatically.
“And get them out of restraints. We're trying to make friends here,” he added.
Chapter 9
Finding A Place
Ayan tried to look at ease. It was difficult. The captain's seat wasn't the intimidating part of being the centre of the Triton command structure, it was the array of informational holographic displays that appeared as soon as you sat down. Her engineering status setup remained but it was surrounded by an all encompassing semi-transparent cloud of displays that kept her informed on all the most important operational details.
It was different in the simulations. Everything looked just as real but the feeds weren't real, you could ignore something and people wouldn't die because they were waiting for a decision or extra information. Stephanie and Jacob's separate boarding actions, Minh's fighter squadron and the situation on the Triton itself were all current, everything was happening right in front of her. The parties delegated to overseeing each act were listed along with an available history of their decisions.
The centre of the display held a three fold tactical map, one for the outside of the obscuring field they had passed through, another centred around the station and another that showed a greater view of everything inside the obscuring field. It was a slow moving maelstrom of wreckage, rogue meteors from the asteroid belt and other difficult to identify flotsam. Triton’s defensive systems were functioning perfectly, the gravity shield kept all the smaller dangers at bay and the lower gunners were effectively keeping a path clear so their ships could land safely. Triton was hidden, at long last. If anyone did a long range sensor sweep of the asteroid field they'd be blocked by the obscuring field. Considering many critical resource cultivation operations used similar technology to hide their activity and inventory levels, they would be passed over. Just another cultivation operation that didn't want to reveal it's central structure or stock levels.
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