Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1)

by Bradford Bates

  I started stretching, and Kyra’s voice came through my comm.

  “Captain, I have good news and bad news.”

  There was no doubt in my mind that she was grinning from ear to ear as she said it. There was nothing she liked more than telling me about how she bailed us out of trouble again. “Start with the good news.”

  “I fixed the stealth generator.”

  Well, that hadn’t taken long at all. “And the bad news.”

  “Until we dock on a station where I can get some quality parts, we won’t have hot water.”

  Why was it always the hot water that she took apart to get us what we needed? I was going to have to make a new policy about raiding parts from the water heater. “Good job, Kyra. I’ll make sure we get those parts as soon as we drop off the goods.” It was going to take a bite out of the credits we were making today, but did any of us really want to live without hot water?

  “You better, Captain. Cold showers are going to put a damper on my love life.”

  “Well, we can’t have that can we?”

  “Not if you want this rust bucket to stay in the air,” Kyra said.

  “Whose ship are you calling a rust bucket?”

  “You know I love the Talon, Cap. Rusty spots and all.”

  “Maybe I need an engineer that can keep the hot water on and the Talon rust free,” I growled. The thought of a cold shower after my workout was already making me cranky.

  “Love you too, Cap,” she said and then closed the line.

  “Don’t worry, Captain,” Maze said as she bent herself into a position I could never match. “I think we can find a way to warm each other up after a cold shower.”

  Well, now that I had something to look forward to a cold shower didn’t seem that bad. I stepped onto the elliptical and started to run. The prospect of spending time with someone I cared about before a job seemed almost too good to be true. It wasn’t something I had done before. I had always been a love em and leave em type of guy, but now I finally saw what everyone else was talking about. When you knew she was the right one, you just knew, and no one could take that away from you.

  Chapter 16

  Captain Drake

  We came out of FTL and started to orbit a small moon. It was close enough to where the freighter would pass so that we could use the gravitational force to slingshot ourselves at them. Then it was time to hit the stealth generator and cut the power to everything but life-support and the emergency thrusters. From where I sat this was the hardest part of the plan, but if anyone could do it, Ice could.

  Ice had to calculate things just right. She wouldn’t be able to use the thrusters until we were almost on top of the other ship. By then their systems wouldn’t be able to differentiate our heat signature from theirs. The problem with it was if someone made a mistake, we became a little rock being thrown against a boulder, that never ended well for the little rock. Once all of that was successful, we still had to be able to clamp down on their ship before they punched it into FTL.

  After that, it was up to me and the boys to go in and move some boxes around. Maze would watch the hatch to make sure we didn’t have any trouble getting back out. Once the cargo was loaded, we got an extended vacation until the larger ship dropped back out of FTL. Ice would unhook the clamps, hit our thrusters once, and we would drift away from the freighter. When they were out of sensor range, we would engage our own FTL drive, and get the rest of our money.

  I finished zipping up my jumpsuit as I walked onto the bridge. Kyra was sitting in the copilot's chair chatting with Ice. They stopped talking, and Kyra stood up to give me the chair. I motioned for her to stay put. “Sit back down. I just came up to watch the feeds.”

  “So you’re ready to see excellence in action,” Ice said with a grin.

  “Maybe, but only if I seem to be a little hazy on my definition of the word excellence.”

  Kyra slid back into her chair. “No Captain, you’ve got it right. I think it’s Ice who forgot what it means.”

  “Hey.” Ice laughed as she threw a piece of balled up paper at Kyra.

  “I’m just saying excellence isn’t the right word. Maybe magnificence or greatness would have been better.” She squinted her eyes shut and then smiled at Ice. “No, I’ve got it now. Captain, you are about to see perfection in action.”

  “Now that’s more like it,” Ice said, a blush creeping up her cheeks. “The ship just came up on radar, Captain.”

  Ice pointed to a blip on the screen. She was right, our ride had just come onto the screen, and she was just waiting for us to get close and snuggle. Two more smaller blips moved onto the screen following the larger ship. “Ice, what are those?”

  “Looks like they have an escort.”

  “That’s what I thought. Can you still do this with them watching?”

  “As long as the stealth generator is at full power it won’t make a real difference.”

  “It’s at full power, Captain,” Kyra said.

  “All right then. Ice, whenever you are ready, get to it.”

  “Locked and loaded, Captain.”

  The ship started to accelerate, and I could see the look of concentration on Ice’s face as she lined us up with where the ship should be. We moved around the moon and launched forwards. Ice pointed at Kyra, and she hit a button on the console in front of her. The lights went down to the warning lights, and the bridge went dark except for Ice’s controls. The two women shared a look and then Ice turned to me.

  “We’re on target, Captain. As long as they don’t adjust speed or direction we should be in place, in about ten minutes.”

  I didn’t like that last part about as long as they don’t change speed or direction, but other than that everything was copacetic. Now as long as we landed against one of the ship’s multiple docking clamps, we would be in business. I leaned against the side of the ship and watched the monitors. Neither of the fighters turned towards us as we drew closer. The stealth generator was doing its job. As long as our luck held out, this was looking good.

  The minutes ticked by and I got more tense as we drew closer to the big ship. If anything went wrong, the fighters would pose the biggest problem in our attempted escape. If the fighters didn’t turn away before Ice used our thrusters to line us up, it was possible they might see the thruster burn out of their view screens. If they did, our best case scenario is that they reported it to the mining ship and left. Worst case they came in for a closer look. Even our stealth generator wouldn’t hold up to that kind of scrutiny.

  The tension on the bridge was as thick as space fog. It almost felt as if all of us were holding our breath waiting for something to go wrong. A little red light started to blink on Ice’s monitor. She moved her fingers across the controls, and then she leaned back in her chair.

  “Shit.” Ice mumbled.

  Shit? I didn’t like the sound of that. “What is it, Ice?”

  “Well, that’s a weird question, Captain. I thought everyone knew what shit was.”

  “Fuck Ice, this isn’t the time for that.”

  “Sorry, Cap. You know when I get nervous, it turns my natural sarcasm up a few notches. Truth is one of the battlecruisers sensors picked us up for a second. The good news is neither of the ships broke position. So, I’m guessing when they tried to rescan the area we’d already moved out of it.”

  If they caught us now, we might not get out of this alive. The Talon could stand up to the fire of one cruiser, but two, not very likely. “Can you still get us there, or do we need to rabbit?”

  “I’m going to be extra careful about firing the thrusters, it might get a little bumpy, but either way we are going to get there. Let’s just hope they don’t ask the mining ship to change vectors.”

  “As long as you don’t crash my baby, I’m ok with bumpy.”

  It was lucky neither of the battlecruisers had moved to intercept us. We wouldn’t have lasted for more than a few seconds against them with our shields down. Their lasers would have ripp
ed right through the hull of the Star Talon. I felt a sigh escape me as I let myself think of all the negative possibilities. I shoved those thoughts aside. We were still alive, so far so good.

  Our ship moved closer to the mining vessel. “Here, we go,” Ice said.

  I watched her screens as the collision alarm started to go off. Ice just smiled as her fingers moved across the keyboard. The ship lurched slightly as the thruster fired. She fired them three more times in rapid succession and then I fell on my ass as we hit the other ship. Standing I looked over the monitors surprised to see that not only were we still stealthy but somehow we had remained attached to the larger vessel.

  “Clamps have been deployed and are holding.”

  “Let’s hope it’s enough,” Kyra said.

  “What’s that mean?” Jesus, if something was wrong, we needed to disengage now. If it happened later, we’d all be dead.

  “Well, it’s not like anyone’s been crazy enough to try something like this before, Captain. Our best guess is we get picked up as part of their ship when they jump, but no one knows for sure.”

  “In other news, Captain,” Ice said turning towards me. “Neither of the battlecruisers has moved since we docked.”

  I pointed over her shoulder at the monitor, and she turned around as I stood back up. “Get me cameras.” Ice activated the ship's external cameras moving them up to the larger view screen at the front of the bridge. My hands clasped the back of Ice’s chair. I felt the leather crack as my grip tightened. Fuck, if I was going to die here, at least let it be fighting. The last thing I wanted to do was be pulled like a tick from a dog and then blown into space junk.

  The two ships moved forward stopping almost even with us. This time I really did hold my breath. The two ships paused for a second next to us then rocketed forward and pulled sharply away from the mining vessel. “Ice, be ready to disengage and power up on my signal.”

  She didn’t acknowledge me. I just had to assume she was ready. The ships turned back towards us and lined back up with the rear of the vessel before continuing back the way they had come.

  “They must have been cleared to make the jump to FTL,” Ice said.

  “Exactly, what I was thinking.”

  “Now we just have to hope that we don’t get junked,” Kyra said.

  No shit. The last thing I wanted was to be blasted into space junk, but all we could do now was wait and see what happened. For better or worse, we couldn’t change our minds now. The air around us seemed to shimmer for a moment. I started to hold my breath. Then the stars blurred and we were in FTL attached to the larger cruiser. The Talon shook violently, and a few more alarms went off on Ice’s dash. She moved them away with deft fingers and turned to face me. The look on her face told me that we succeeded and weren’t about to get junked as Kyra had so eloquently put it. I let out a laugh. There was no way in hell anyone would believe this story. I mean what kind of crazy fucker would slingshot their ship around a moon, then cut the power until they hit an airlock on the side of a larger ship, and risk staying attached as they entered faster than light travel. Something like that was too crazy for my action vids, but we had done it.

  “Now it’s up to you, Captain.”

  “Good work you two. You’re going to have some down time, but I need you available to help Maze with anything she asks for until we are back on the ship.”

  “You got it, Cap,” Kyra said.

  I turned and left the bridge heading towards the cargobay. I sent out the signal to the rest of the crew that it was time to go. I paused in front of the armory to grab a shockstick and a stunner. We needed to be able to move in and out of the vessel without raising suspicion. The sooner we got the cargo back, the sooner we could relax. The hardest part of the mission was over.

  Chapter 17

  Captain Drake

  The crew filed into the cargobay, and I handed out the weapons I’d removed from the armory. Maze also had a rifle slung over her shoulder. I gave her a look, and she met my eye almost daring me to tell her to put it back. I knew better than to try and fight her on the issue of weapons. If she wanted to have a rifle to secure the ship, then so be it. Gabe and the Doc each had a lifter for the cargo, so it looked like we were all set.

  “Maze, once we exit the ship, your job is to keep the airlock access open for us. We don’t want any problems coming back, especially if we’re in a hurry.”

  “What makes you think you’ll be in a hurry, Captain?”

  She said it with a flirty little smirk on her face. I decided not to dignify that question with an answer. I always prepared for contingencies. We tended to need them more than I liked. “Gabe, Doc, you’re with me. We will go straight to the warehouse and get the cargo, and get out. Keep your eyes down, and your feet moving forward.”

  “Let’s do this,” Gabe said.

  “Got it, Captain,” Richard replied.

  I went over and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, a gesture that would have sent him scurrying into hiding when we first found him. Now he looked up into my eyes, and I could sense his relief. “Don’t worry, Doc. This is what we do.”

  He nodded his head and moved into place beside Gabe. I moved in front of both of them, and Maze stepped into position in the rear. This was it, in a few hours we’d be sitting around in the rec room, eating and talking about what we were going to spend our cut of the profits on. “Ice, open her up.”

  I waited for what felt like an eternity. I still have the attention span of a younger man, so in actuality, I probably waited less than a minute before comming her back. “Anytime, Ice.”

  “Working on it, Captain.”

  She sounded stressed, and that was never good. Maybe when the ship was in FTL, the computer had some kind of protocol not to open the airlock and to disengage anything that was attached. The Talon started to shake. I mean that couldn’t really be what was happening right? That just had to be my overactive imagination talking. We were better than that. The shaking subsided, and Ice came back over the comm.

  “And you’re in,” Ice said as the doors opened into the other ship.

  “Do I even want to know what happened?”

  “Probably not.”

  “And will it be a problem when we try and leave?”

  “No, that part should be fine.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” I said moving into the airlock.

  Gabe and the Doc followed me in, and Maze brought up the rear. The door to the larger ship was already open as I approached. We slipped into the mining vessel without saying anything to each other. A quick look around showed the interior of the ship to be old and the air smelled of oil. It made me think that the ship might also have refining facilities on board. It would make sense. Why waste time hauling ore to a planet when you could refine it down into the materials you wanted and sell it for more as soon as you touched down.

  One thing for sure is we were too clean to be working on this ship. I ran my hands over the pipes and started to wipe some of the grease onto my clothes and face. Gabe and the Doc followed my lead. Maze just gave me a look that said she wasn’t going further into the ship, so she shouldn’t have to rub grease on herself. Just like the thing with the rifle I knew this wasn’t a battle I could win.

  Now that we were sufficiently covered in grease we moved from the small anti-chamber into the ship itself. Most of the giant, ship’s interior would be open spaces meant for stacking piles of rock and metals scavenged or mined from planets. The pure metals and more expensive materials found would be moved to a warehouse, while the rest got sorted and refined as necessary.

  Finding the warehouse wouldn’t be that hard, and getting in should be easy. People might start to ask questions as we tried to move cargo out of the warehouse, and that was where the plan got a little hinky. Cargo was typically only moved when the ship was docked, so we were going to stick out when we started hauling the crates back to our ship. A couple of shots from Maze’s rifle might be enough to scatter the
miners long enough for us to get back to our ship unseen. The one thing we couldn’t afford was anyone following us back to the Talon. I knew if that happened, I would think of something, I always did.

  The first few people we ran into had on orange jumpers compared to our brown ones. I hoped it was just as simple as people wore what they had and not that the entire ship wore orange. If the latter was the case, then we would already be branded as outsiders. The whole point of this part of the mission was to blend in.

  We moved in a single file line against the perimeter of the large open area. Sticking to the walls should have kept a majority of the attention off of us, at least I hoped so. You could never be sure on a vessel like this, there was always a rat or two that just liked to make trouble to curry a little extra favor from the company.

  Most of these giant tugs weren’t very big on security. They let the miners figure most of it out themselves, only sending in teams to fix problems that caused work shortages. They also weren’t big on cameras unless it was an area that stored valuables. So we should be clear of any overly prying eyes until we reached our destination. By then, Ice would have wormed her way into their security system and started looping all the warehouse feeds.

  Once she dropped the looped footage over the live feeds, we would be good to enter the warehouse. From there we would most likely have an hour or two to get the cargo and make it back to the Talon. All of this kind of hinged on how many people worked in the warehouse. We could take out a few with our shocksticks and stunners, but those folks would be missed, and that would shrink the timetable yet again. Not to mention that security might be called in if they couldn’t find anyone to blame for the unconscious workers.

  It would be better if we could get out without any hassle. Maybe a little bit of swagger would go a long way. Act like you were supposed to be somewhere, and people assumed you were. If you got fidgety and acted weird, people tended to notice. All we had to do was play it cool. Load the boxes, move the boxes. End of story.