“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.
“I found it intimidating at first too,” Agameg whispered from the tactical command station. “They use a different kind of system where you're from?”
Ayan nodded as she settled in and looked at the status update of the boarding actions. “More simplified, but I'm also not trained on carrier operations.”
Agameg Price paused a moment, cocking his head. “I didn't find it was that complicated when I was keeping watch on the bridge. May I see the display?”
Ayan made the command display public for a moment so everyone could see the half circle of holographic interfaces that surrounded her. Jason shook his head and chuckled. “Now I know why Oz disappeared for three months for up training before he took command of the Roi De Ceil. Multi-Mission Interfaces are no picnic at first.”
Agameg’s green eyes stretched open into perfect glimmering circles and he made a chuffing sound of surprise. “The bridge watch status displays are much simpler. I understand your surprise and apologize.”
Ayan smiled as she made the display private again, glancing at a few others on the bridge who looked up long enough to see the myriad of images and information that the Captain was expected to monitor. She hadn't had much of a chance to get to know Agameg, or anyone else aboard for that matter, but she had to admit he was one of her favourite crew members so far. She'd never met a shape shifter who remained in their native form before, and there were times when she caught herself staring. He'd just smile and wink, as though he knew she meant no harm. “It's all right. The systems on Triton are a lot easier to use in some ways. This much information on a Freeground terminal would be a lot more…” she searched for the word, distracted by the holo feed of Jacob's boarding action. They were almost completely through the inner airlock door.
“Raw,” Jason finished for her. “I know, the operating system on this ship is amazing. It's only a little intelligent without an AI, something it has in common with Freeground software, only it's like the Sol system programmers are about a hundred years ahead.”
Ayan tried not to react as Jake neutralized the pair of slaves that had been marked as volatile. The nanobots he injected them with interfered with the chemical reaction taking place in their breastbones with no time to spare. Jake's heart rate dropped as soon as he was sure they were the only two walking bombs he had to deal with.
Her eye was drawn to Stephanie's mission status. She led her squads into a primary airlock and they immediately engaged a group of enslaved raiders. The firefight seemed desperate at first. Suddenly the enemy stopped firing, someone out of sight screamed and Ayan realized that the Captain aboard the Palamo had somehow activated the detonation sequence for the raiders aboard the station.
“I need you to retreat, Chief Vega. Now.” Ayan said quickly and clearly.
“Backtrack!” Stephanie called out. They made it just around the corner before the halls ahead of them exploded, rocking the point of view perspectives on her holographic display. Ayan brought up the summarized status displays for the squads and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Chief Vega's people had gotten to the minimum safe distance. “Thank you Ayan. Glad to have you in transmission range.”
“This is the Cold Reaver. It looks like the raiders pinning us down committed some kind of suicide. One of our landing struts are damaged but we're all right.”
“Your guess isn't far off Cold Reaver. Let Chief Vega do a sweep of the area before you begin loading the injured.”
“Aye, sitting tight until we get the all clear.”
“Chief Vega, do a sweep between the Cold Reaver and the people we have at the inner door. When you arrive at the inner door I'd like you to affix a conductive wire to the superstructure of the station then connect it to your reserve comm unit. We might be able to get a signal through the electromagnetic field they have set up.”
“Will do Ayan,” Stephanie replied.
“Ayan, what's going on?” Jake asked over his private comm.
“It looks like the remainder of the raiders were just killed,” Ayan's eyes went wide as she saw the Jake's boarding mission from his perspective. His sidearm was perfectly aimed at a wealthy looking fellow's head.
“My scan of his slave control unit tells me there's one more on the ship but the detonation order came from this one. He killed thirty one of his own people before handing it over to me.”
She listened as Jake told the Captain to give him the password. “Ask him why he's killing his own people on the station,” Ayan directed quietly.
Jake was interfaced with the amulet the Captain used to control his slaves and the first password attempt failed. It warned him that he'd only get two more attempts. “I'm going to get the password and make sure the slaves are safe. They'll tell me what's going on on the station once they're free,” he whispered. There was a determination in his tone that sounded dangerous.
Ayan had heard it before on the First Light right before he ordered them to mercilessly obliterate a light carrier. She eyed the log being uploaded from the amulet. Captain Gammin didn't just use the control unit and slave implants to kill people, he used them to administer drug cocktails that made certain members more suggestible, rendered female members of the crew mostly unconscious and boosted alertness in others. The crimes Captain Gammin committed using the devices were endless and according to what she was seeing he was constantly adding new slaves to his crew. The most common use for his amulet was torture, mostly on a young woman named Nerin
e.
She found the serial number of the other controller and brought up a cross section of the Palamo. A red dot designated the amulet's location, it was in one of the hangars.
A glance back at Jake's status told her that he'd managed to deactivate the Captain's control unit. “Kneel,” she heard him demand.
“Jake, we have a brig. We might need him for more information. He could be a member of a larger group,” Ayan said hurriedly. She watched the rest of the exchange and cringed as Captain Gammin tried to bargain with Jake. Captain Valance's heart rate jumped, his neural statistics indicated a level of anger that would have most Freeground officers relieved of duty and suspended for a month.
“He won't do this again.” Jake whispered over the private comm as he pulled the trigger.
Ayan looked away just in time to avoid seeing the mess his sidearm made of the man.
“What is it?” Jason asked in a whisper.
She shook her head and forwarded the whole record of Jake's boarding action to Jason. The display listed a new contact on the tactical map, a thirty four meter hyperspace capable ship. “Oz, do you see this?” she asked.
“It's up on my screen. My birds are on patrol, the party's over so I can spare a pair,” Oz replied over bridge communications.
“I'll have Chief Frost hit them with EMP rounds. There's a slave controller on that ship, I want it disabled before we bring it aboard,” Ayan informed him.
“All right, once it's disabled I'll have a Uriel haul it into landing bay two.”
Frost came up on her display; “Somethin' for my gunners to shoot, lass?”
“Aye, disable only. Use EMP rounds.”
“Done and done,”
For the space of three seconds five heavy gunnery turrets opened fire, sending hundreds of EMP railgun rounds towards the small interstellar ship. A flare of electromagnetic bursts obscured it for several seconds as the rounds discharged and the Triton’s tactical system noted it as inert when the vessel came back into focus.
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