Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane

by Chris Hechtl

  “Very well.”

  “Admiral, they won't see us for some time. We could go into stealth,” Bounty suggested.

  The Admiral's eyes cut to the plot. The corvette's icon was there. He shook his head no. “Tempting to use them as bait, but no. They are really helpless. If the enemy took their ire out on them...”

  “Understood,” Bounty said quietly.

  “Besides,” Sprite said in an aside to the AI. “I know the Admiral. He doesn't like leaving a man behind.”

  “Understood,” Bounty said to her.

  “I am guessing we are going with a repeat of Trojan horse?” Sprite asked.

  The Admiral nodded. “Better get your game face on Commander, I want a Broadway performance,” he said.

  “I'll do my best to break a leg sir,” Sprite replied dryly.

  “As long as it's one of theirs, I don't mind in the slightest Commander,” Irina replied with a grin.

  <----*----*----*---->

  The two Apollo class corvettes came in with the large freighter, another Clydesdale turned collier/troop transport. They had kept the ships on their sensors for the full three and a half days it had taken the Horathians to cross the system and match speed and orbit with Bounty.

  “That's right, keep coming. Fat dumb and happy. Boy have we got a surprise for you,” Nobeki growled.

  The Admiral glanced her way and then smiled grimly in wordless agreement.

  “It's getting to be a regular ship's swap meet here,” Ian said over the laser link. Irons chuckled. He'd heard about ship swap meets. Ships would come together in a system and exchange parts, crew, or materials. Two swap meets were quite famous from this century, one a wedding had been performed, another a funeral of a rather popular Captain.

  “We have ID's on the ships. The lead corvette has an IFF broadcasting an identifier of CTA1R667. The second corvette playing rear guard is broadcasting CTA2J899. Either they have caught a lot of ships, or they have built quite a few over the years,” Sprite said.

  “Or they did those identifiers in a random method to make people over estimate their numbers Commander,” Defender reminded her. Sprite felt irritation but ignored the other AI.

  The Admiral studied the sensor read outs. They had run tracking exercises on the incoming ships several times over the past three days. He could tell the crew was nervous but now excited. After what had happened with the last convoy, they expected a repeat. Hopefully they wouldn't be disappointed. Hopefully they wouldn't be overconfident either. “Tag Alpha one Romeo as Romeo. Tag Alpha two Juliet as Juliet,” he ordered. Romeo had some issues with her power. He could tell even though the ship was in the lead she had only half the power she should have. Apparently they were moving at her pace.

  “Aye sir,” Nobeki replied.

  “ID on the collier?”

  “T12783 sir. T stands for tender or transport I believe,” Nobeki reported.

  “Yes it does,” Sprite said absently. “ID?”

  “Let's just call her Collier two for now,” the Admiral said. “We can think of something else later.” He refocused on her image on his HUD. “Are you ready?”

  Sprite shrugged. “Ready as I'll ever be Admiral,” she said.

  “All right, you are on when Bounty opens a signal.”

  “Sure you don't want to wait for them to call us Admiral?” Sprite asked nervously.

  “You'll do fine Commander,” the Admiral replied.

  “You are on Commander,” Bounty said.

  “This is Captain Hathaway of the Bounty. How did it go?”

  “Impatient Captain?” the audio response came a few minutes later. There was laughter in the voice. “I can't blame you.”

  “More like boredom,” the Captain replied. “Though we're keeping the engineers busy lately.”

  “We see that,” Captain San replied, amused. “Are you trying to build your own yard Brian?”

  “No, just wishing one was nearby right about now,” the Captain replied, sounding amused.

  “Taking that planet was like taking candy from a baby! If all of those jewels are so easy to pluck,” one male voice said. Irons frowned. This was tricky, these people obviously knew Hathaway, so they could easily trip Sprite up. Sprite had orders to cut the conversation short if it became too tangled for her to handle.

  “She certainly is a beautiful marble,” Captain San said. She was obviously the most senior of the group, though she was stuck on the collier instead of captaining one of the small warships. Either there was something going on there, a gender bias, or something else.

  “Taking her was dead easy. She was ripe all right. An agro world though, not much there. The idiots had nothing to use for defense either. A push over,” one of the corvette Captain's scoffed.

  Sprite knew better than to ask names. Fortunately Bounty's records were clear on who was on each of the ship's. Unfortunately none of the ships had an active IFF at the moment.

  “The planet has one space port near the capital city and no communications to speak of. Colonel Wizenbeck's people took the capital easily and spread out to take the remaining large towns and villages.”

  “Excellent.”

  “We weren't needed,” one of the corvette captains said, sounding annoyed. “There was nothing in the system.”

  “Pity.”

  “I'm glad the colonel grabbed your shuttles. I know you were reluctant to part with them Brian, but they came in handy. The mudball has roads, but they use animals for transport,” Captain San said, sounding disgusted. “If you can believe it. Animals. Backward hicks. We're doing them a favor,” she said.

  There was a soft growl from the bridge crew on Bounty.

  “So, the planet is secure?”

  “Yes. Oh, there are some yahoos holding out here and there, pockets mostly with hunting rifles or improvised weapons. Hillbillies I think the colonel colorfully called them. And some of the natives ran into the hills. The colonel is expecting some resistance for some time, but he assured us he has enough fire power on hand to deal with anything the natives try.”

  “Understood.”

  “Due to the colonel's need for air cover and transport on the planet, I was asked, and I granted that half the shuttle compliment remain behind,” the Captain said sounding a little nervous. Hathaway's image scowled. “It's not like you need all of them Captain,” she said hastily, expecting a protest. “At least not right now. This system lacks a decent planet and you're boat bay is full as it is. So don't complain.”

  “True,” Hathaway grudgingly admitted.

  “I kept two shuttles for each of your two prizes Captain. That way they have a spare. They need some TLC though. They've been on my outer hull. I'll be glad to be rid of them,” Captain San said pointedly.

  “We can handle that,” Hathaway's image replied. Sprite felt hampered by the conversation. The time delay between exchanges worked in her favor, but the lack of a visual image hindered her efforts. She couldn't read any body language, just garner what information she could form their tone of voice and content. Still, she did what she could with what she had available. “It will give the crews something to do.”

  “Bet you wish you were there!” the Captain said. “A little action...” She paused expectantly.

  Hathaway's image shrugged. “Yes well, orders are orders. We all have to play our part in the grand scheme of things.”

  “Yeah, but you've been busy,” the corvette Captain responded and then whistled. “More ships? And you've made some repairs!” There was a bit of jealousy and envy in his tone.

  “Three of the ships you are seeing are the resupply train. The collier brought in a replicator. And we picked one up in one of our... acquisitions,” the Hathaway imposter replied. “You can tank up shortly,” he said, sounding dismissive.

  “Ah,” the Captain nodded sagely. “I see. My thanks, we'll no doubt need the fuel for the next leg.” He cocked his head as someone whispered to him off camera. “Say, I don't suppose we can get in on that? We're in
need of some parts,” he said hopefully.

  “I don't know,” the image of Hathaway responded. “We're pretty full up on stuff and limited on materials.”

  “We can trade for it. We picked up some choice food items on the planet. Plus some other exotic treats,” the corvette Captain said slyly.

  “Maybe we can work out a deal then Commander,” Hathaway's image replied thoughtfully. The Admiral smiled coldly when the Commander perked up. “Send over a list of what you need and what you wish to trade. I think we can push collier T niner five niner one's departure back a day or two without any harm,” he said, smiling slightly.

  The Captain chuckled and cut the circuit.

  <----*----*----*---->

  Corvette CT alpha one Romeo six six seven docked with Bounty. The larger ship had insisted they move away from the downed corvette to give her work crews room to focus on their jobs.

  Once the ship was docked and the docking clamps secured, Lewis and a pair of marines boarded the ship with a cargo crate. The crew met them grinning like idiots.

  “First load,” he said gruffly. The eager rating reached for the cover. Lewis slapped a hand down on top keeping the lid shut. “Uh uh. Show us the goods first. Captain Hathaway's orders,” he growled.

  “Fine, this way,” the rating sighed, clearly expressing his tried patience. He waved them inward. Lewis struggled with the push pull over the knee knockers. He looked over his shoulder to see the bored rating smirk slightly.

  “Put your backs into it,” Lewis growled to Yorrick and Reiner as the two men struggled to lift their end. They got it over the hump and then onward.

  Lewis moved with them through the ship to its tiny engineering compartment. There Yorrick shut the hatch and then they opened the crate. Three female marines spilled out. Lewis, Yorrick and Reiner took down the gaping Horathians and then grabbed their weapons.

  Hand signs flashed as Lewis ducked into his body armor and then took his weapon from one of the female marines. One of the others was already zip tying the enemy prisoners. Grimly he nodded to Yorrick by the hatch.

  Yorrick nodded back and then yanked the hatch open. He did a quick peek and then lunged through the opening with Reiner, Cherry, and Lewis on his heels.

  They left two marines behind to finish secure the prisoners and the compartment as they rushed through the ship. Five minutes later Lewis reported in through his implants that they had taken the ship without firing a shot.

  “They should all be this easy,” Lewis said, grinning.

  “I wish,” the Admiral said. He knew it would only get harder. Hopefully the other corvette would go down so smoothly.

  <----*----*----*---->

  Chief Roberts frowned when he recognized CTA42E2357. He'd seen images of her often enough, his brother had practically shoved them up his nose in his excitement when he had gotten the posting. Echo was hard to miss even though her aft was in pieces. He didn't envy them that task; working out there... it was too easy to go Dutchman. And too easy for a crew to just write you off too. He shivered.

  The ship wasn't broadcasting an IFF but his little brother had told him he was on board the ship and that it was assigned resupply escort. They had planned on hooking up when they met up.

  “Skipper, permission to make a personal call?”

  “What is it Roberts?” Captain San asked, sounding distracted and annoyed.

  “I'd like to call forty two echo if I may ma'am. Personal call.”

  “Got a hot lover on board? Maybe you should kick the girl you've got chained under it out first. Unless she goes three way?”

  Roberts snorted. He'd picked up quite the looker from a soldier on Hidoshi for a bottle of whiskey from the ship's still. She was quite a looker, with long black hair down to her ass like he liked. She was shy too, which he also liked. He hadn't been brutal with her, he didn't like to bruise flesh much it dropped the slave's value, and besides, he hadn't needed it. She'd been meek and sweet.

  “No,” Roberts said. He pictured Jacques expression when he saw the girl. “No, my brother is on Echo ma'am. I thought I'd give him a call. Make sure he's doing his job and find out if he has any mail from home,” he said.

  The Captain looked up from the report she was reading. She nodded thoughtfully. “All right. And see if he's got any of the latest magazines and videos from home as well. We've watched the finals of 'Alien Invasion' and 'Fergies world' too many times to count.”

  Roberts grimaced and nodded.

  “And see if he's got any sports footage,” the Captain said. He nodded again. She waved a dismissive hand.

  He turned to leave but she called out again. “And any major news broadcasts,” she said.

  “Geesh, I should be writing this down,” he muttered.

  “I heard that,” she said mildly; making him flinch and pause, then continue on his way.

  When he got to his quarters he looked down at the girl. She was snoring softly under the bed. He nodded and sat at his small desk and tapped at the controls. “Chuck, put me through to Echo. Captain cleared it,” he said.

  “Don't forget to get the files that the Captain said,” Chuck replied. “Putting you through now,” he said.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Roberts exhaled noisily. He looked over to the girl. It would be nice to get a quicky right about now; he'd finally trained the girl on her oral technique. But no, he had to go back on duty in a half hour. He didn't have time to shower and didn't want to start his shift sticky and too relaxed.

  “Signal received. We have the Captain,” Chuck said.

  “Captain Alverez? This is Chief Roberts on T12783. By any chance is my brother Ensign Roberts available?” There was a long pause. Roberts frowned. “Hello?” he asked. “Anyone there?”

  “This is Echo. We're here,” an unfamiliar voice replied. That got to Roberts, he knew Alverez. He and Alverez had gone through the academy together. “This is... Captain Mack. Ensign Roberts isn't on this ship.”

  “Mack?” Roberts asked, wrinkling his nose. “Mack, Mack,” he said softly to himself, trying to place the name. It didn't ring a bell. “I'm sorry, what happened to Captain Alverez?”

  “I've never heard of a Captain Alverez,” Captain Mack replied.

  “That doesn't make sense. He's been Captain of the Echo for three years,” Chief Roberts replied, now confused.

  “I don't know, I... um, was just transferred,” Ian said, trying to recover. “There has been some shifting about.”

  “Um... and my brother? You said he's not on board?” the Chief asked. “That doesn't make sense. I spoke to him six months ago on the ship...”

  “I don't know what to tell you. He's not here,” Ian said. He frowned. “Look, I'm in the middle of a big repair here Chief, so if you don't mind...”

  “Yeah um... oh!” he heard a soft mew as he woke the girl. He looked over his shoulder to her and then back. “My Captain and crew are going stir crazy. Captain San asked if you can get us any video from home you've got. Specifically in the past year.”

  “I don't have anything recent,” Ian said. “Just material older than that. Sorry,” he said.

  “Yeah sure,” Roberts mumbled, cutting the connection. That made no sense, no sense at all, he thought. Ships lived on videos and data from home. Movies, television, E-books, sports... it didn't matter. They were all homesick for it, and they passed copies along any chance they could. In fact it was a standing order from command to do so to help with morale.

  If Mack was new, why didn't he bring any material when he came on board? That didn't make sense. Nor the sudden replacement of both the Captain and his brother. And the current Captain had no idea where they went?

  He rubbed his chin. It could be that they were off doing Intel work but he seriously doubted it. His little brother? Fresh out of the academy? And the Captain? Why them?

  They could be dead, he thought with a sick pang. He sat up straight, frozen. Yes, that could be, something could have happened. Or they had gotten in trouble. That too wa
s also possible, Ed had a way of sticking his foot in it from time to time...

  He shook his head. No, something was off. He got up and walked out.

  As he walked, head down, hands in his pockets he thought about the situation. Captain Hathaway had made it clear he wanted all the shuttles back when they returned, no exceptions. “And yet he didn't protest much,” Roberts muttered. He slowed his pace. The ship, yes, there was something off there too. Where were they getting the parts? T9591? But how?

  He turned about and headed for the bridge. He needed to talk to cooler and wiser heads.

  <----*----*----*---->

  Captain San sat poised behind her desk as Chief Roberts finished. She mused over his report, and suspicions that something was wrong. He was right, she knew Brian, Brian Hathaway was a marionette. A by the books officer, bucking for a flag. He had pitched a snit over her borrowing the shuttles... she remembered it well. She'd thought she'd catch hell from him when she showed up with half of them, but he'd not even blinked. He was never so easy to give away resources, let alone fuel and parts. That struck her as odd.

  “So, what your telling me Chief, is something is fishy. What do you propose I do about it?” she asked. She studied the Chief as he squirmed uncomfortably. That was another thing; the Chief wasn't an excitable person. He had initiative he took care of things. He was a good leader. She'd occasionally had to call him to heel when he took too much initiative, but that was fine. She'd rather he handle something than wake her every time there was a hiccup in engineering.

  “Ma'am, can you scan the ships? Something is off. I keep coming back to that. I remember grams told me a story. I know it's silly, but I remember it. A... fairy,” he said and winced. He knew he sounded like a nut. “A changeling,” he translated weakly.

  “A changeling?” the Captain asked, lips pursing in a smile.

  The Chief winced. “I... my grams was Scottish ma'am. She passed on stories of the ancient times. One told of how fairy folk or trolls would steal human children and replace them with one of their own.”

  “You're saying someone swapped our ships and people for boogie men Chief?” the Captain asked, laughing.