by Jay Toney
After stripping the salvageable parts from the Juno, it was towed outside and released to drift away. Then the Argos was brought aboard. Instead of setting it on the center of the hangar deck, it was moved forward to give the Marauders room to land.
As soon as the assault shuttles landed, the hangar doors closed and the shuttle bay pressurized. Everyone reentered the hangar area including 15 of the surviving crew members of the Juno. The bodies of the freighter's captain and dead crewman were dumped outside to drift in space with what is left of the cargo ship.
The crew of the Argos didn't wait for Doc to announce himself at the main boarding hatch. They opened the airlock and proceeded down the ramp, already stripped of their clothing. Their hands were clearly visible raised over their heads to show that they are unarmed. The crewmen and women were directed towards the other freighter's crew. When they were grouped together, Doc ordered a member of the boarding party, "Have a detail take them to sickbay to be scanned. Then take them to the brig and issue them disposable jumpsuits." Then Doc turned to Sgt O'Connor. "Use care with taking this freighter apart. I want it put back together as soon as it is unloaded.
Natasha, come with me to the bridge." When they got to the bridge, Devin is at the comm controls, and Jadsia is sitting at the sensor station. They are allowed to stay on the bridge for Captain Robert's private discussion with the starship's AI. Doc trusted them with his life. "Natasha seal the bridge." The bulkhead door closed sealing off the bridge from the rest of the starship. "Devin shut down all comms to the bridge." What Doc has to say is highly classified. If word of it leaked out of the cruiser, they would all be dead men. The Alliance isn't giving Captain Roberts much for the credits they took from him through both taxes and tithe. That meant he had to be creative with the Queenie's finances dividing what was rightfully his from what he let the Alliance line their pockets with. Doc is seeing to it that he keeps the majority of the wealth that he acquires.
"Natasha, alter our records to show that the Argos was lost in an accident. All hands aboard the freighter were lost, and the cargo ship was deemed as not worth salvaging. Its hulk was left to drift in deep space."
"What about the cargo manifest and ship's logs?" Devin asked.
"They were lost with the freighter. In fact, we never received a copy of its logs or records," Doc answered. Natasha, make sure that our records reflect that we have no records from the Argos and, of course, none of its crew."
Doc stared at the star map and searched through the ship's logs for a planet or planets where he could sell his merchandise. Deneb is too close to the Nibaru solar system to sell the freighter, even after altering its title, transponder information, and its markings. But, the black market there is always looking for drugs that they could by at a reasonable price and sell for profit. The Sybilian Nectar he took from the freighter convoy is in very high demand in that system. Doc would profit significantly from the hallucinogenic drug even after leaving enough meat on the bone for the buyers to make a decent profit.
According to the starship's records, Deneb's neighboring star system, Andorra, is still in its FTL infancy. Selling the freighter to them is illegal, but so is everything else that Doc did for a living. The Argos would sell there for top credits, and its people would look the other way from any irregularities concerning the ownership of the Argos.
Selling the weapons is easy. Doc could sell them anywhere, but the Antares defense forces would owe him a favor for choosing them as his first consideration for selling the blasters, rifles, and power armor he collected from the convoy.
That left just one problem. What is he going to do with the prisoners? He will keep a careful eye on the prisoners to see if any of them are worth recruiting. Doc didn't like slavery, but it is an option. There are very few other options for the survivors that didn't involve spacing them. Maybe, they could be convinced to join Antares's military where they could be watched. Doc had plenty of time to decide what to do with them.
Captain Roberts used the different star systems as chart points en route to the Antares solar system. There was nothing odd or suspicious about the course he chose. It was a course that most starship captains would use to maximize their profits.
"Natasha, calculate our next jump coordinates and enter hyperspace as soon as possible," Captain Roberts ordered.
Doc Meets Girl
The Corriban solar system is one of a dozen star systems within the jump range of the Queen Anne's Revenge. However, it is only one of two star systems that have habitable planets occupied by humans or humanoids.
So far, intelligible life falls into one of four groups: aquatic, reptilian, insectoid, or humanoid. There are other exotic lifeforms based both on carbon and silicon. Most of them are microbial and the few that aren't have proven to be unintelligent, aggressive, or deadly.
The Corriban star system is 5.2 light years distant from the Andorra solar system we are leaving. The trip is taking the Queen Anne's Revenge almost 11 days to complete. It seems like a long time in hyperspace, but when you compare it to the 26 years it would otherwise take the cruiser to complete at its maximum sublight cruising speed, it is nothing.
We exited hyperspace in deep space. Natasha shut down the cruisers drives and verified that our transponders are not transmitting, making it difficult for anyone to see us on their sensor scans. Weapon specialists reloaded our missile magazines, with missiles that were salvaged from the Alliance destroyer, while we were in transit. The cruiser's missile tubes and magazines are fully loaded in case they are needed.
Jane assured me that she could have the starship's hull patched up within a few days time. The Queenie's internal repairs would take longer, but they couldn't be started until after the hull is patched and airtight. Permanent repairs would have to wait until the starship is in a repair dock.
Jane and Randolph both took repair pods outside of the starship and begin cutting away the twisted pieces of hull plating and armor. When they finished removing the damaged sections, they welded new hull plating in place. As soon as the hull could be made airtight, it will be pressurized so the internal compartments can be repaired.
"Captain, I'm picking up a distress signal on the emergency frequency," Devon reported.
"Put it on screen."
"It is from an automated beacon. There is no message. It is just repeating the source's last known location."
"Is there anything on our sensor scans?"
"I'm not picking up any other spacecraft in the area. Either its drives are shut down, it is too small to detect, or it is out of scan range," Jadsia answered.
"Scramble the Reaper pilots. Have Bill and Angel take out a rescue shuttle. His orders are to find that ship and bring back any survivors. I want whoever is in it alive," Doc told Devon.
"Natasha help Jadsia with the sensor sweeps. Use the distress signal to narrow the search area."
"I'm on it Captain," Natasha assured Captain Roberts. "Don't worry, we will find the ship."
Doc is worried. A distress signal isn't something to ignore. As far as he is concerned trying to help whoever sent the call for help took priority over anything else. The Alliance government didn't waste their time rescuing disabled spacecraft. During the 100 years war, the Alliance commanders proved their crass feelings about life by using distress the beacons inside the escape pods and lifeboats to locate them and then use them for target practice. If Doc or any member of his crew were in trouble, he wanted them rescued.
In the meantime, he still had the business of being a pirate to attend to. He had only six weeks left until his next scheduled rendezvous with the starship that the Alliance is sending to collect the tithe and taxes Doc owed. Three months between payments meant that he needed to pay them 9,000,000 credits at a minimum. He needed to do another raid.<
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"Devon, send a couple of shuttles to scout Corriban III. We need intelligence for a raid."
"Captain, I've located the source of the distress signal. It is moving out into deep space fast. It looks like the spacecraft wasn't able to slow down after coming out of hyperspace. If we don't leave now, we won't be able to catch it. It is on a bearing of 112 degrees, inclination 0.5 degrees, moving at .25c."
"Set an intercept course and standby," Doc ordered the ship's AI. Natasha's avatar resumed her seat at the helm station.
"Devon, tell Jane and Randolph to get back inside now. Signal all hands to prepare for acceleration," Doc ordered.
It took a minute for the two engineers to report that they were back inside of the ship. Hopefully, the Queen Anne's Revenge wasn't a minute too late. "Natasha, go to max burn, give full emergency power to the engines. Turn all safeties off." Even with the inertia dampers canceling the effects of acceleration, everyone seated is thrown back in their chairs with their seat harnesses holding them in place. Undoubtedly, sickbay is going to be busy mending the broken bones and concussions for those people who ignored the warning or didn't get strapped into their emergency harnesses in time.
The Queen Anne's Revenge's hull made groaning and creaking noises that are not normally heard as it accelerated. Hopefully, the bracing Jane welded in place while they were in hyperspace would hold, or they could be facing the real possibility of the cruiser breaking into two.
The starship's engines are military grade drives designed for hard acceleration during combat, but they could burn themselves out with constant heavy acceleration. Doc is willing to take that risk to rescue the people aboard the spacecraft they are attempting to save. If he didn't recover whoever was in that spaceship, Nobody else would.
The cruiser accelerated past its maximum cruise speed of .2c and continued accelerating. They passed .25c, the starship's recommended flank speed and kept going. The sublight engines pushed the Queen Anne's Revenge up to .32c before cutting the drives. The spaceship, a small transport ship used by couriers appeared on the edge of our sensor range. Its icon flashing blue and black on our tactical display. The sensor readings indicate that the spacecraft is severely damaged.
Jadsia announced, "My sensor readings are picking up one, human equivalent, bio sign reading; it is weak."
The cruiser couldn't do another hard burn until the engines had time to cool down. The tactical display shows that we are closing in on the damaged courier ship. It seems like our starship is moving at a dead crawl. Doc knew that we aren't.
"Natasha, how much longer before we intercept the ship?"
"It will take another 47 minutes at our current velocity."
"Is there any way to intercept the transport faster?" Doc knew there isn't, but he still had to ask.
"We can launch a rescue shuttle, but I would advise against it," Natasha answered.
"Why?"
"Since we started this rescue mission we have collided with 23,317 small particles ranging in size and mass from specks of dust to grains of sand. We continue to have collisions with an average of 57 particles per second. The Queen Anne's Revenge's deflector shields deflect a majority of these particles, but some get past our shields and are only stopped by the starship's armor plating. The deflector shields and armor on our shuttles and Marauders are nowhere near as strong as the cruiser. It would be a suicide mission."
Doc isn't going to waste lives to potentially save a life. He hates it, but there is no choice other than to wait for his starship to catch up with the speeding courier ship. Doc stared at the viewscreen willing the gap between their spaceships to close. Eventually, it did.
Natasha's voice brought Doc out of his trance-like state and back to reality. "Four minutes to intercept."
"Bring the Queenie alongside the transport ship. Get as close as you can," Doc ordered Natasha. Her avatar's fingers danced across the helm controls, making minor adjustments and changes to the ship's course. The forward and rear port side thrusters fired briefly. Then the starboard thrusters fired to brake the cruiser's movement. Natasha's avatar stared intently at the sensor readings being fed to her station by Jadsia. She fired a couple of short bursts with the altitude control thrusters to match the transport ships angle of inclination. "We are as close as I can get to the transport," Natasha told Doc.
"How far away are we from it?"
"It is 12 meters from our shuttle bay doors on our starboard side."
That was close enough that the Queenie's shields would protect the vessel and whoever he sent out to get it. "Have Jane take a repair pod out and bring that ship in," Doc told Devon.
As soon as Jane reported that she was safe back inside of the hangar, Natasha closed the doors and began pressurizing the shuttle bay.
"Bring the Queenie to a full stop. We will continue our repairs here," Doc ordered Natasha.
Her avatar fired the forward, port side thrusters and the aft, starboard thrusters to rotate the cruiser on its axis. As soon as the starship was aligned on a heading that would take them back into the system, she fired the opposite thrusters to stop the starship from rotating.
The engines still needed more time to cool, but they were cool enough for a low power burn. Running the engines at low power will help them cool down. Natasha started decelerating the Queen Anne's Revenge, but she kept the thrust at 10 gravities. It would take 12 hours to bring the ship to a stop. By the time they stopped, the rescue teams that Doc had sent out, should be back.
Doc's comm chimed for his attention. It was Dr. Marcus. Doc answered his comm. "Captain, the person we rescued is alive, but just barely. I can't tell you more until I have had a chance to examine her."
"Thank you, Dr. Marcus. Let me know if her condition changes."
It was going to be a long watch on the bridge today. Doc had already been here for most of a standard shift, and he would stay on the bridge until the ship is stopped and it is verified that they are in the clear. Doc sat back down in his command chair and began updating the starship's logs.
He must have dozed off in his seat. He is startled awake by his comm chiming for his attention. It is Dr. Marcus calling him from sickbay. He answered his comm. "I thought I would let you know that the woman is conscious," Dr. Marcus started. Doc broke the connection, got out of his seat and left the bridge in a hurry to get to the infirmary. He wanted to see the woman for himself and get the doctors prognosis in person.
When Doc arrived, Dr. Marcus is with his new patient. Doc hurried over to them. The woman he saw on the examination table, which also serves as a hospital bed, is the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. She has wavy brown hair. Her eyes are closed so he couldn't see them, but he could see that they are bright blue in the holographic image above her. Her lips are full and slightly parted. Doc couldn't see so much as a blemish or scar on her body. She looked human, well, mostly human with the same number of legs, arms, fingers, and toes. What is different are her breasts. The woman didn't have the two or three that most humanoid species have. She has six. They were smaller than human breasts, with the largest pair high up on her chest and each pair below them smaller. Six breasts would look strange on any humanoid species, but on this woman, they looked perfect. Below her breasts, her stomach is flat and slender. Her legs are long and athletic.
"I gave her a nanite treatment to finish healing the wounds on her legs. I also gave her a dose of general antibiotics to clear up any infection that she might have. Her DNA, anatomy, and physiology are almost identical to ours. She should be in perfect health, but she is dying. I don't expect her to live longer than a week; ten days at the most," Dr. Marcus briefed Doc on the woman's condition.
"Get something to cover her with and a gown for her to wear," Doc told the doctor. H
e recognized her as an Iniguar woman from the stories he was told by his father and mother, but this is the first of her species that he ever met. Most spacers aren't concerned with nudity. Doc didn't know whether she was ship born or planet born. He also didn't know whether her species have taboos about nudity. It is better to be on the safe side, especially with just meeting her.
Doc took the sheet from Dr. Marcus and covered the woman with it. While he was tucking her in, her eyes opened, and she whispered, "Thank you."
She spoke galactic basic. Most species did so it didn't surprise Doc when the woman spoke. Doc took her right hand in his and said, "Sleep now. You are safe. I will see you in the morning."
Natasha's avatar was waiting for Doc in his cabin when he arrived. "I knew that you would want to celebrate our success, so I sent my avatar here to wait for you," Natasha announced over the cabin's comm system.
Natasha knew just about everything there is to know about Captain Roberts. Her avatar had only been in service for five years, but her memories go back to when she was first activated 70 years ago. She remembered everything about Bartholomew Roberts, the first captain since the Queen Anne's Revenge was returned to service, his wife Amanda, and the birth of their son Doc. Natasha helped raise him, educate him, and she watched over him as he grew from a child into a man. He is the captain now, and it is her duty to serve him in any way that she could.
"I think I have found the woman of my dreams," Doc told Natasha.
"Then you have more than one reason to celebrate. I will make it special tonight so that you will never forget me." Natasha's avatar unzipped the zipper that started at her neck and extended down the length of her left arm to her wrist. She pulled her hand through the sleeve's cuff and then slid the skin tight jumpsuit off of her body.