by Jay Toney
"Replication, is one of the sciences we are still trying to master, with some success. The holographic simulators we use today, give us substance as well as image, while in the simulation. Replication takes that one step further by allowing us to retain the substance outside of the simulator. We have achieved a level of replication that allows us to replicate inanimate objects, but not giving life to the lifeless. I believe this science is similar to what you are capable of doing. I've brought with me all of our knowledge of science and culture as a payment for what you have done to help us. Who is your keeper of knowledge for engineering?"
"That would be Mike." I pointed to him, and Shar'tu handed him a data pad, and several memory crystals.
"It is time for us to go."
"Wait, will your secret not be safe aboard the Persephone?"
"It would, but my people are waiting to whiteness our death, so they can return with its news to our houses."
"We can fake your death, and you all will be welcome to live with us."
"It would be a great honor if only you had the authority to grant such a favor."
"I am the captain and owner of the Persephone. I can grant whatever favors I wish, and I am granting this favor to all of you."
"Persephone."
"What can I do for you Captain?"
"I need four officer staterooms, for our new guests."
"They will be ready in a couple of hours. I have crewmen on the way to remove the cargo, from three cabins, and to remodel Natty's and Tanya's cabin."
"I understand."
"Captain, were these not your bond mates?"
"They were before our re-bonding. I still loved them."
"It would be a great honor if my bond mate and I could take this cabin."
"It is yours. I will show you the way and we will get your other officers settled, as soon as we can get their cabins ready. I have one more question for you. Can any of you fly our Marauders?"
"It has been a long time since we have used craft such as your Marauders in combat. We regularly use them for sport. We cannot fly individually in combat, due to the limitations of our bond. But we all can fly with our bond mates, as pilot and copilot. We will also be glad to serve in what capacity we can aboard your ship."
"Persephone."
"Yes Captain."
"I need you to fly the Iniguar shuttle back towards their ships, and cause it to self destruct. I need to convince them that our Iniguar guests have committed ritual suicide."
"I'll get right on it, Captain."
Crewmen were busy, painting and refurnishing Shar'tu's cabin when we arrived. He looked at the space in the rooms and asked, "Is this not for all of us? We are accustomed to living in much smaller spaces aboard our ships."
"This cabin is not as extravagant as my own, but I assure you that it is just for you and your bond mate. Your officers will be getting their own cabins, very much like this one, as soon as we can get them ready."
"What of our duties?"
"Would you mind serving as second watch on the bridge."
"It would be a great honor."
"What skills do your bond mates have, that they may contribute to our ships?"
"None of our bond mates are skilled. We bond because of their good looks, pleasant company, and skills in mating."
"All very good reasons to bond," I agreed.
"They are, but our bond mates help out with what they can, by keeping our quarters clean, preparing our meals, and making life easier and more joyous, however they can. It is a pleasant arrangement for each of us."
"There are female clothes here which you can divide among the women, until we can get them more suitable clothing. We have some basic clothing in storage, that will work for the men, as well as some jumpsuits."
"Persephone, can you arrange for a standard 5 day set of clothing for each of the Iniguar men, and some jumpsuits for everyone."
"I will have them delivered shortly. Is there anything else I can do?"
"That is it for now."
"The shuttle is on its way and I have an explosive charge on board."
With the destruction of the shuttle, the Iniguar were satisfied that honor was kept, and their ships disappeared into hyperspace. Our ships probed the debris field going much slower, searching for any signs of life. A weak transponder signal was found, and the life boat located. All aboard were dead. They were killed when the Alliance found them, and fired on the life boat. Amongst the more civilized systems, this was considered to be dishonorable. To the Alliance, it was target practice.
With no luck finding any survivors, we made our way to the Arradin System jump point. Persephone linked with the Lucy and the Vengeance. She set the hyper drives to launch us all into hyperspace together. While in hyperspace, I hid myself in my quarters, and mourned the loss of Tanya and Natty, with Jewel and Amber. Someday, somehow, I would make the Alliance pay dearly for their deaths.
We entered the Arradin System. This was the first system in the Lawless Sector. We would have to run a lot deeper, if we were to be safe from the Alliance. They would be sure to follow with price they put on my head. My friends and I would do our best to let them know that our pursuit would be a very costly one.
Our deflector shields did their best to repel any objects, but the area we found ourselves in was a large ice field, full of various sized pieces of ice. Our sensors were useless. Our viewscreen showed us surrounded by what looked like fog, but was actually small particles of ice, occasionally we collided with large pieces making a deafening noise. We slowed our speed, to reduce the possibility of damage.
Red hailed us, "Nathaniel, a few years back I use to mine these ice fields. There was good money in it. I use to do a milk run between here and planet Thanatos in the Nueva Zelanda System. It helped finance my other operations. This ice is pure and a good way to top off our tanks. I'll be needing to take on some reaction mass for my engines soon anyhow. With this we can extract all the hydrogen and oxygen we want for free."
"Red, my ship is a little on the thirsty side too. Lets top off our fuel and water tanks while we can. Even if the Alliance follows us here, they won't be able to find us in this soup."
All three ships spent the next few days gathering ice with our shuttle craft. We melted the ice and used it to fill our water tanks, and we separated the oxygen and hydrogen from the rest of the melted ice for fuel. We pumped what oxygen we could into our tanks, the rest was vented to space. It was to bad we didn't have the cargo room to store any of the ice. It would have been free cargo, we could have profited from.
After our mining operations were finished, we continued pushing our way through the ice field. Red assured us that it did in fact end, and we would find ourselves in clear space shortly.
After two more days of travel, we broke through the ice and fog. We came into a system with a yellow dwarf sun, and seven planets. According to our database, these were frontier worlds, whose economics depended largely on agriculture and farming.
Long range scan indicated that the second planet, had sustainable colonies, and more important a space station. We set our course for the space station.
Chapter 27
The Lucy docked in blue section, and opened up for business. I was docked nearby in Red section, and Red moored his ship where he could keep an eye on the both of us. All of our ships were full, and didn't need to take on any reaction mass. But overcrowding with all the additional cargo we took on made it a necessary stop.
We all posted a list of cargo, we thought the colonists could use, hoping to be rid of it, at a decent price. A lot of my silver was used to purchase the cargo aboard the Vengeance and my s
hip.
While here, I wanted to take advantage of the local commerce, and purchase fresh food. We had frozen meals and staples, that could last us for years. With both Doc and Rosie cooking for us, I wanted plenty of fruit, vegetables, and fresh meat for our meals.
The crew didn't care one way or the other about fresh foods. They, like most space faring people, lost the flare for cooking. They would take advantage of the fresh fruit, but that was about it. They preferred to eat their frozen meals. The meals were simple to heat, of top quality, and we had a wide variety of meals to choose from.
Our new Iniguar crew, were surprised at the quality of food we had available. They were use to much less. With the fresh foods we had available, and the additional fresh food I was going to purchase, their bond mates were kept busy preparing their meals. Like me, they preferred fresh food when available.
One of the things, I recently learned from them, is that they took their bond mates with them into battle. This way if they were killed, they died together rather than facing a slow lingering death that could take months to end. They had no skills that could be used on their warships. Their wives didn't care to learn anything that couldn't be used to entertain their husbands. They preferred to serve their husbands and please them in any way that they could. They had beautiful singing voices and loved creating art and crafts.
That meant overcrowding on their ships, and shortages of food. I started to realize just how cramped they were aboard their ships. It meant twice the number of people, and a lot more space lost with the additional cargo needed to sustain them. Even their ships captains didn't rate the amount of space they had allotted to them now. I gave them each a few hundred credits to purchase clothing, and other necessities. When they left their ship to join my crew, they abandoned all of their property thinking they were going to their deaths.
The women, loved the clothing that was left behind from Tanya and Natty. It was a new fashion style for them, and it pleased their husbands. A lot of the clothing left their lower breasts exposed, but they didn't mind. They enjoyed the stares from our crew as they walked the decks of our ship, showing off their new clothing.
It had been awhile since our crew had some leave, so they were taking advantage of it now. Some of the crew went to the Lucy, where they were assured to have a good time. Others, found themselves in the stations bars, restaurants, and brothels. Our entertainers, having few appointments, while we were docked, had time to shop and enjoy other recreational activities.
Amber, Jewel, and I found ourselves walking the docks in Red section. We were unarmed as was customary, when visiting different space stations. The locals didn't seem to follow this custom, a group of them found sport in harassing my wives. The local constables did nothing to interfere, they stood by watching and laughing. A group of Red's crew saw us and rushed to our rescue.
Red's crew escorted us to a weapons dealer, where I purchased blasters for all of us, and a saber for myself. Armed now, I went looking for the gang of people who harassed us. It didn't take long for them to find us again. They thought we would be easy prey, to rob or worse. We allowed them to push us into a empty passage. Whatever they had planed for us failed, we turned the tables on them. We were now the hunters and they were our prey. Jewel and Amber blocked their exit from the narrow corridor, with a few shots of their blasters.
The three gang members were wielding wicked looking knives. I pulled my saber from its scabbard and wasn't going to holster it until it tasted their blood. I was about to teach these street urchins a lesson they would never forget.
They attacked. They were use to their victims being defenseless and cowering before them. I blocked the blade of the first attacker, and continued my movement to the second. He was defenseless against my attack, my sword opened up his belly spilling out his intestines. The third attacker missed and I kicked him in the crotch. I may be a master swordsman, but that didn't mean I didn't know how to fight dirty.
I turned my attention back to the first attacker. He made a slashing attack with his knife, I stepped back out of his reach and brought my saber down hard against his arm. The sharp blade cleaved through both meat and bone, severing the limb. Before he could react, I hit him in the face as hard as I could with the guard on my sword. I heard the satisfying sound of bone crunching. The third gang member dropped his knife and begged for mercy, knowing he was outclassed.
I wasn't done with my lesson yet. I kicked him in the crotch again. While he was bent over suffering I picked up his knife and holstered my saber. I threw him against the side of the building lining the passageway. I held his right arm outstretched against the buildings wall and stabbed his hand with his own knife, leaving him stuck there.
"If I was you, I wouldn't mess with strangers anymore, and I'd spend the next few minutes calling for help, while you still can."
We left them. The gang member was frantically calling for help with his comm unit. I made a call to the ship.
"Persephone, I need all crew members notified to be armed on station, and to travel in groups. This station is not friendly to us. Pass this message onto Red and Captain Jenkins."
"The messages are being sent Captain. I advise you return to the ship, immediately. There is a message going out to be on the look out for someone matching your description, as well as Jewel's and Amber's. It has something to do with a group of men that were recently attacked."
That was fast. The girls and I headed back to our ship, and to our quarters.
"Captain, I have a call from Red. Do you wish me to transfer it to your quarters?"
"Yes, please do."
Red's image filled my viewscreen, "Nathaniel, it didn't take you long to find trouble."
"Trouble found me first."
"I know, I got a report from some of my crew about the locals harassing you and your wives, also about the constables doing nothing about it."
"They didn't just do nothing. They watched and laughed at us. The station master assured me we would have no trouble when we docked. He lied. Those gang members pulled their weapons first. I made sure they would think twice before attacking strangers again."
"There won't be a next time. They were all executed and the authorities are looking for a group of people matching your, Amber's, and Jewel's description. At least the stationmaster hasn't alerted their security as to who you are."
"At least until he gets the cargo he needs. I am going to put some armed security on our dock, just to make sure they don't try coming aboard."
"That's a good idea. I suggest that you start recalling your people. At least until things cool down a little. If need be, they can stay on the Lucy, they will be safe there. We can shuttle them back from there after we depart."
"Do you know why they executed those gang members?"
"It was a mercy killing. There medical treatment here is crude and they don't have the supplies, except for the very rich. That is one of the reasons they are buying as much cargo as we are willing to sell."
"One of the gang, only had a simple stab wound through the palm of his hand. It would have healed on its own."
"It probably would have, if he was stabbed with a different knife. Their knives were all dipped in a nasty toxin that would have caused a nasty infection followed by death, if left untreated."
"I guess the street urchins were not so innocent after all."
With some of our cargo sold, we had access to more empty cabins and could navigate the corridors without fear of tripping over the various stacked cargo containers. We made a decent profit with the sales of our excess medical supplies.
I called the stations control center to schedule departure clearance for tomorrow morning. They denied me. I was ordered to surrender myself and my ship to the stations authori
ty. I was wanted for the murder of three of their citizens. I told the controller where he could go with these trumped up charges.
I ran to the bridge with Amber and Jewel following.
"Jewel, sound battle stations, seal all hatches."
"Persephone, recall all our troops to the Lucy, and have them depart as soon as everyone is accounted for."
Mike arrived on the bridge, huffing and puffing.
"Is there anything I can do?"
"The station has our docking clamps locked. We cannot undock. Will our hatch hold if we try to break away from the stations gantry?"
"We could try to tear away from the docking clamps, but if we did, it would cause severe damage to our airlock."
Our viewscreen showed several troopers in powered military armor outside our airlock with blasters and rifles. They were using the docks comms to demand our surrender.
"Jewel, open a channel to Red."
Red appeared on our viewscreen, "Nathaniel, don't do anything yet. The Lucy is getting ready to undock. She will be in position in a few minutes."
"In position?"
"As soon as she is in position, I will call the station master one more time demanding your release. If he doesn't release you, we will show them just what the Lucy can do to this entire docking section."
"Thanks Red, I'm standing by."
"Amber, target our PDC at the docking gantry, just in case."
The Lucy positioned herself, and we waited while Red negotiated with the station master. The negotiations went on for hours and the docking clamps remained locked.
"We can send a man into the docking tube to cut the clamps."
"That would be a one way mission. I will not subject any crew member to such a task. Is there any other way?"