“The bastards expected to just waltz in here,” Harry said, his smile disappearing. “They didn’t even think we could access the old missile towers.”
“They won’t make the same mistake twice,” Charley said somberly. “They’ll come back twice as hard.”
13
“All is not lost,” Harry said cryptically, taking Charley’s hand and leading her into the command post. He dragged a terrain projection of Frostfire over for Charley to scrutinize. It was a drone’s view of Ottova, the town far to the south beyond the Hanov Range. Emperor Galactus had set his warship down in the old abandoned spaceport to the southwest of town. A defensive perimeter had been set up around the port facility. Charley could see the cruiser that had caused so much trouble sitting alongside the much larger ship. The port was a hive of activity, with troop transports entering from the south and east.
“We’ve spooked them,” Harry said proudly. “For the first time Galactus will be wondering if he has enough men for this invasion. He was too arrogant, bringing his command ship alone. He never took into account the power of farmers and scrappers who have no love for him.”
Charley watched the image, lost in thought.
There still seemed to be an awful lot of Imperials on Frostfire.
“They’re consolidating,” Harry said. “Our victory here at Ghost Fort has made him more cautious.”
Charley felt hope rise in her like a flower. “Can we press home the advantage?” she asked breathlessly. “Evict Galactus from Frostfire?”
“Maybe,” Kovacs said, walking up behind them. Charley felt a thrill at his presence. Now that she’d come through the battle and survived, she wanted more than ever to be naked in his arms.
“Our long range scanners suggest that Galactus can’t receive reinforcements for at least seven days,” Kovacs said. “And even then, all he would get is a few cruisers. He miscalculated coming here like this.”
Charley was overjoyed to hear the news.
“We should pull together local militia groups and survivors from all over the plain,” said Harry, not to be outdone by Kovacs. “We can head south in a convoy and form a ring around Ottova.”
Kovacs nodded. “I’ll put out a call on the general com channel,” he said. “We can recruit folks as we head south. For now, I think we should use the rest of the day to pool our resources.”
“But should we leave Ghost Fort?” Charley asked, worried about leaving such an effective defensive stronghold.
Kovacs shrugged. “I’ll be leaving some scrappers here. People who can work those missile turrets if need be. But if we want Galactus off the planet we’ll need to tighten the noose around Ottova.”
“Makes sense,” Charley said quietly as the bodies of the dead were dragged in.
“Eight in total,” Kovacs said in answer to Charley’s unspoken question. “They died well. Very well.”
Charley took a moment to memorize the face of each of the dead. It was difficult to witness the raw grief of the families of those who had fallen, but she forced herself through it and offered words of support.
The next thing to do was prepare for the morrow. She collected her things together and went to see about transport.
Apparently Kovacs had repaired and maintained two trucks which were kept in a garage off the inner courtyard. They were good to have, but more were needed to ferry everyone across the plain. She talked to the settlers from Scantia who knew of an old refinery of some kind where there were a number of trucks. Some of them could conceivably be repaired and made functional. With Kovacs’s blessing, Charley sent a team of scrappers on their way to the refinery to acquire more trucks. Hopefully they would be back by the morning.
Kovacs also organized a hunting party to accumulate provisions for the journey south. Harry offered to lead the party, eager to stretch his legs out in the wild. Charley was beginning to wonder whether Harry wanted to be near her. It was now plainly obvious that the old pirate knew about her little rendezvous with Kovacs. Harry was a genial character but there were some things a proud man couldn’t take. Charley was sure Harry would be his old self in no time - he just had to adjust to the new situation. Charley made no apologies for the way she lived her life. She enjoyed herself and no man was going to change that.
Feeling a growing sense of anticipation Charley sought out Jack Kovacs. She found him organizing emergency rations in the kitchen. She touched him on the elbow.
“There’s nothing more you can do today,” she said. Kovacs could see that she was right. It was getting dark outside and it was time to rest and recharge.
The last thing Charley did before taking Kovacs’s hand was give Molly, Gronko and Vanessa a big hug. Her crew was brave and loyal and she let them know she appreciated it. Vanessa gave Charley a look of such pain that Charley had no choice but to take her too. She glanced at Kovacs and he nodded with a smile - no problem there.
Kovacs showed the girls where he slept - a high-ceilinged chamber with a personal hearth in the corner. Kovacs coaxed a fire to life while Charley and Vanessa scrubbed themselves in an old-school hot tub. It was nice to wash away the battle sweat of the day.
Once the fire was roaring and everyone had eaten, Kovacs produced a bottle of Folovan wine and entertained them with stories of his childhood in the core worlds. To hear him describing the sprawling metropolis where he was born was to be transported to a galaxy Charley never knew existed. She savored every detail, aching to have the same experiences Kovacs had enjoyed.
Relaxed and light-headed, Charley began kissing Kovacs by the firelight. Vanessa rubbed Charley’s shoulders with genuine care and attention, suggesting that Charley remove her suit. Charley unzipped her suit slowly, enjoying the spotlight as she stepped out of the clinging material. Vanessa stood behind her, kneading the tired, aching muscles in her back. The other girl’s hands strayed to her buttocks, pressing and stroking with a sensual touch.
Kovacs stood in front of Charley and stepped in close - it looked like the pirate captain was to be the meat in the sandwich. Slowly, teasingly, Kovacs removed his leather trousers and fine white shirt. He was already excited as the leather hit the floor. Charley took him in her hand and made him even harder. Vanessa’s hands left Charley’s back and there was a rustle of clothing. Charley felt a tingle between her legs, knowing exactly what she was able to feel at her back. Warm flesh pressed against her. Vanessa was rubbing her bare nipples up and down her spine. Charley shivered at the contact and begged for release. The threesome withdrew to Kovacs’s eiderdown bed and made love for most of the night, the fire all but crumbled to dust by the time the first light of dawn pierced the cracks in the wall.
The early morning delivered welcome news - Kovacs’s scrappers returned with seven trucks repaired and ready to roll. The refinery they’d found had an intact store of fuel cells, which was a huge bonus. Seven trucks would barely fit all the the settlers let alone the supplies, but they would make do. The trucks were lined up in the courtyard and loaded with gear. Settlers were piled into the flatbeds, around twenty to a truck. It was decided that women and children stay in the relative safety of the keep, under the watchful guard of a skeleton garrison.
In the end some one hundred and thirty prime fighting rebels were seated and ready to travel. Enough provisions to last several weeks had been packed also. Charley and her crew were to travel in the vanguard of the convoy. Harry was as cheerful as ever, clearly determined not to assert any kind of control over Charley’s personal life. For her part, Charley appreciated Harry’s maturity and wished some of that had rubbed off onto his son, Vinnie Teks. Not for the first time she wondered what the brooding pirate was up to. The last she saw of him he was exerting new found powers too amazing for words. His confrontation and apparent assimilation with an ancient jellyfish on Bonesse both scared and horrified her. Part of her didn’t want to know what had happened, and dreaded the day their paths crossed again. She got the distinct impression Vinnie was obsessed with her and wouldn’t le
t her live her life as freely as she would like. Despite her fears, she had to admit that having someone as powerful as Vinnie in her corner was somewhat useful.
With all these thoughts bumping the edges of her mind, Charley climbed into the cabin of the leading truck and tapped the ceiling for luck. Harry smiled at her superstition and accelerated slowly through the courtyard. Kovacs was traveling to the rear of the convoy, probably much to the old man’s relief. Vanessa squeezed Charley’s thigh as the truck trundled out over one of the few tracts of ice left on the frozen river. Progress was solid over the snow as they headed south. The trucks all had winter tires that chewed the snow with no problems at all.
At around midday the convoy reached the forbidding Hanov Pass and Charley’s truck was the first to pass through. The sheer rock walls to either side were much larger than Charley had thought from viewing the pass from above. Following a nerve-shredding few minutes in which the convoy was completely open to ambush, they broke through to the south and found themselves in lightly wooded terrain. There was a fairly well trodden track that Harry could follow through the pale yannom trees.
The track weaved and slithered through the Teroni Foothills, slowing their progress. Charley was disappointed to see darkness gathering before they’d even descended to the Kingston Riverina to the south.
The convoy made camp deep within the trees and spent an uncomfortable night wondering whether the Imperials would detect them and send missiles their way. Once or twice Charley did actually hear the sound of a drone high overhead. To detect their infrared signature would have been relatively easy, but luckily no attack came. In the morning their camp was broken quickly and they were off again. By mid-morning the Teroni Foothills had been cleared and they were crossing the regular bridges of the Kingston Riverina. The landscape was still covered in snow but Charley suspected that this part of the world would be among the first to spring back to life once it all finally melted. It was in a reasonably temperate band of latitude and the wide Sadore floodplain made farming a very real prospect. Kovacs had told them that this area was once the grain silo of the entire northern hemisphere. Ottova was in fact one of the largest cities on Frostfire. Now it was mostly a ruin, but that hadn’t stopped Galactus from repairing the spaceport and making a fortification out of it.
Once the convoy started rolling through the satellite towns of Ottova they were faced with a tricky situation. They’d seen more than one drone fly overhead and it was certain that the Imperials knew of their presence. Several of the trucks had scanners that could theoretically provide a thirty second warning to a missile’s approach. In that event the convoy would split in varying directions. Three of the trucks had been built to combat aerial threats and had functional AA turrets. They weren’t much use offensively, but they could deploy decoy chaff intelligently, drawing missiles away from their intended target.
The convoy was rolling through a small town called Gerida when all kinds of warnings resounded from their long range scanners. Harry merely pressed down on the accelerator, looking to get as much separation from the other trucks as possible. He needn’t have worried - the missile detonated against decoy chaff some two hundred yards above their heads.
Despite not being hit Charley found the experience extremely unnerving. The convoy came to a halt on the outskirts of Ottova proper and needed to scramble for two further missile attacks.
“They can’t do that forever,” Harry observed. “Soon they’ll realize they’re just wasting missiles.”
Charley stepped out from the truck for a conference with her comrades.
Kovacs rushed up to meet with her. He was looking at the surrounding buildings carefully, perhaps concerned about enemy snipers.
“I put a general call out last night,” he said. “We have several hundred rebels converging on this position.”
Charley nodded, welcoming the prospect of reinforcements.
“And the city?” she asked.
“There’s resistance here,” Kovacs replied. “Large bunch of scrappers normally operate out of Ottova. The Imperials firebombed their sanctuary and they were forced out into the woods. They’re en route also.”
“What does that give us?” Charley asked.
“Perhaps more than five hundred able soldiers,” Harry said in a hopeful tone. “It all depends on what kind of gear we can acquire in Ottova.”
“Leave that to me,” Kovcas said. “Our drones suggest the Imperials have pulled the vast majority of their ground forces into the spaceport. Ideally we’d acquire a fleet of firebirds or something similar so we could attack from the air.”
“Good luck with that,” Harry said. “That warship would turn the firebirds into scrap metal.”
“Exactly,” Kovacs said a little impatiently. “Which is why we’re planning to head underground.”
“Go on,” Harry said, his interest piqued.
Kovacs activated a terrain projection of the city from his wrist pad.
“A man simply known as The Tinker runs the scrapping operation in Ottova,” he said. “He knows of an intricate series of tunnels that run right under the spaceport. They were once used to steal supplies from the old Imperial base there.”
Charley looked at the web-like series of tunnels and saw vast potential in using them for a surprise attack.
“Five hundred rebels appearing where they’re least expected could cause quite a stir,” she said excitedly.
“If we pick our targets, yes,” Harry admitted. “We need to know where the Imperials have housed their armory, barracks and command post.”
“My thinking too,” Kovacs said. “All we can do is run some careful reconnaissance once we’re down there.”
“Sounds good to me,” Charley said. “Where’s the nearest safe entrance?”
“That’s why we’re waiting here,” Kovacs said. “The Tinker’s on his way.”
14
The convoy settled themselves and tried to blend in with the urban surroundings. The trucks were parked under the awnings of shopfronts on a quiet side street.
Before long Kovacs’s attention was drawn to the interior of an abandoned kiosk. Charley followed him through the shadowy doorway and was confronted with a huge man in some kind of battle suit. The suit itself was constructed from various bits of scrap metal and fashioned brilliantly into a multi-layered walker. There were no weak points or joins as far as Charley could tell. Walking in the thing would be a bitch, but the protection offered would be extreme. The man’s head and shoulders were pale and hairless. He peered at Charley with pink, rheumy eyes. A jagged scar ran across his forehead and around the side of his head. The Tinker certainly appeared to be a tough operator.
“Got your transmission,” he growled to Kovacs. “It might be time to make a move.”
“That’s right, Tinker,” Kovacs said respectfully. “I have a hundred rebels at my back and there’s hundreds more on their way.”
“You’re all targets out here in the open,” the Tinker said. “I will begin your insertion underground.”
“Copy that,” Kovacs said. “Do you have a tunnel map we can follow?”
“Transferring now,” the Tinker said. Charley didn’t see any movement but then noticed an off-sider tapping at her wrist pad.
“We will occupy the far western tunnels, near the western perimeter of the spaceport,” announced the Tinker. “You will let me know when you are ready to coordinate the attack.”
It wasn’t a request. Kovacs nodded, glancing at Charley. She saw no problem with the plan, but sensed that this “Tinker” liked to run his own program and maintain a level of secrecy. Charley could understand that, as long as this master scrapper could be depended upon when the time came. Plus, their access to the underground scrapper network of tunnels had come a little too easily for Charley’s liking. Kovacs established a secure channel with the Tinker’s offsider before leaving with Charley.
“That was too easy,” she said as they returned to the truck convoy.
“Don’t read too much into it,” Kovacs assured her. “The politics of this place is complex. I have a feeling the spaceport is the Tinker’s main source of scrap and circuitry. Remember, traders stopped coming to Frostfire a long time ago. I can only imagine how his people are suffering right now, cut off from their sanctuary. He just wants these Imperials evicted as soon as possible.”
Charley nodded. When Kovacs put it like that it made more sense.
“Do you trust him?” Charley asked.
“No,” Kovacs said with a grin. “And I think that’s your real issue. My attitude is, he hates the Imperials more than he hates us. We can use that to our advantage.”
Charley was happy to go with the underground option. Unless the rebels miraculously came across a fleet of stealth bombers they weren’t going to have much luck with a direct assault.
Using coordinates fed to him by the Tinker’s people, Kovacs directed the convoy further south, away from the city center and the spaceport. At length they came across a large culvert with an overgrown tunnel entrance underneath. The area was quite desolate, marked by towering apartment buildings that looked deserted save for the gangs of young folk who appeared high on some kind of local drug. Unwilling to confront an armed force of over a hundred rebels, the gangs melted into the shadows and stayed there.
“This is our entry point,” Kovacs said as he stepped from the truck cabin. He proceeded to brief the other truck drivers before climbing back in. The heavy concussion of grinding concrete echoed from the tunnel and Charley wondered if the Tinker was opening the entrance remotely.
The trucks rolled through the overhanging creepers and into the tunnel. Kovacs engaged his fog lights and a long, straight westward tunnel was revealed. The trucks rumbled over centuries-old concrete for a few miles before the tunnel narrowed into a dank walk space. Charley and her crew stepped from the cabin and readied their weapons.
The tunnel was bitterly cold, even by Frostfire standards.
The Pirate Commander (The Space Pirate Chronicles Book 3) Page 8