Captains Malicious (The Liberation Series Book 1)

by T. R. Harris

  As Robert watched the traffic filter by, with its inordinate number of KST ships, something dawned on him. He was intimately aware of what was normal for this transit, having grown up among the company’s ships and their crews. So he had to ask the question: Had Gaolic Baett consummated his contract with Kincaid Shipping, and were these his own ships transporting Vixx’r goods and personnel? If so, then that would explain the high number of KST ships in the vicinity.

  It also raised the question about what to do next? He established a conference link between the Malicious and the Kai Shek to discuss their options.

  “Who cares?” Drake said. “They’re under Vixx’r control now, so that makes them acceptable targets.”

  “But they’re crewed by Humans,” Javon Steele pointed out. “That goes against our charter, Drake.”

  Robert stepped into the conversation. “We’re out for the bounty, so our intent—at least for now—is to not destroy any ships but rather to raid them. I know that the bulk of the KST fleet is made of vessels with only light armament. Don’t take this personal, Drake, but they could—with some luck—fend off an attack by the Kai Shek, but certainly not the Malicious. And they know it.”

  “What’s your point…Captain?” Drake asked.

  “The point is no one needs to get killed unless they choose to get killed. We box them in, disable their engines if need be, and then demand their surrender. Any rational merchant pilot—Human or Vixx’r—should obey.”

  “And what if the Vixx’r overlords onboard won’t let the Humans surrender?”

  Robert smiled. “The typical KST transport carries a compliment of eight Humans, and unless it’s a personnel transport, that only leaves room for a couple of extra Vixx’r. Besides staring down our weapons, the few aliens aboard would also have to contend with a bunch of pissed-off and pragmatic Humans. And we all know that mule-drivers are not the most passive and prissy types. I’d actually like to see a couple of Sludgers try to stop a Human crew from doing what they damn well please.”

  “So we take the chance that they’ll surrender their vessels before any one gets hurt?” Steele asked, doubt still evident in his voice.

  “I say give it a try. If they choose to fight then we deal with the situation at that time.”

  “Let’s just make a damned decision,” Drake said. “We’ve let five potential targets slip by already. I’m ready for some action—and for a payday.”

  “Roger that, Mr. Drake,” Kincaid said. “The next target of opportunity to come along, you lead the way. I’ll have a squad of flitters ready to launch once contact has been made. Let’s not leave anything to chance.”

  “It’s about time…sir.” Drake’s screen went dark before Robert could say dismissed.

  *****

  IT was an agonizing four hours later before another of the ubiquitous KST ships came by. Even though the transponder was the only thing that identified the ship as belonging to the one-hundred-fifty ship fleet of Kincaid Shipping and Transport, in his mind’s eye Robert could see the brilliant yellow paintjob, with its bright swath of red running from the forward quarter all the way back to the port and starboard engine pods. It was this slash of red that gave the fleet its moniker as the Smiling Ships of KST.

  Robert was conflicted as he sent out the flitters when the yellow craft took off at a sprint in a futile attempt to evade the Kai Shek. These were ships from his family’s business, and crewed by men and women he knew intimately. Since an early age, Robert had been a constant around the shipyards and docks, learning the skills that would guide his life and living from these very same pilots and crew.

  Now he just hoped they were in control of their own destinies and not under the threat of arms. He wasn’t sure what he’d do in that case. Even if he ordered the flitters to take out the engines, there was still the chance of catastrophic damage to the rest of the ship. If that happened then people could die, people who were his friends.

  Once Gaolic had learned the identity Captain Malicious, Robert had fully expected the alien to dismiss any plans he’d had for using KST as the Vixx’r primary mode of transport and shipping within the Reaches. The pirate threat was eliminated with his arrest, right? So there was no need to hire the company’s ships.

  Yet with his escape the alien must have reasoned that Robert—of all people—would be the last to fire upon ships belonging to his family business. He must also be aware of Robert’s intimate relationship with the crews, let alone the hardware. In hindsight, the logic of going ahead with the contract made sense. What Kincaid was hoping for now was that Gaolic had grossly misread the sense of duty-to-company he was counting on from the KST crews.

  Whose assumptions were correct or not would be revealed within the next few minutes.

  *****

  “THEY’RE slowing,” Lt. Sean Sinclair announced from his tac station. “But it looks like they’re coming into an attack profile, lining up on the Kai Shek.”

  Bondel Drake’s face occupied a side screen. “If they fire, I’m not going to just sit here. I’m going to defend my ship.”

  “Just back off, Drake,” Kincaid ordered. “Let the flitters do their thing before you start blasting away.”

  “That’s not up to me, Kincaid. You know these pilots. I’d get on the horn right now and try to talk some sense into them if I were you.”

  “I’m on it. Just give them some space.”

  The Malicious would now be on the screens of the KST cargo ship, so any option they may have thought they had about fighting their way out had just flown out the window.

  “Mr. Sinclair, get them on a link!”

  “Been trying; no answer.”

  “Dammit!”

  “Flitters requesting weapons hot,” Steele called out. “What should I tell them?”

  “Tell them to sit tight. We’re not under any deadline.”

  “They’re still heading my way,” Drake reported. “That puts some urgency on the matter.”

  “Sinclair, get through—”

  “I got ‘em! Patching you through.”

  “Attention attacking vessels!” came the desperate cry over the loudspeakers. “We are now in charge of the ship. We are powering down, please disengage.”

  “This is the Malicious, identify yourself?”

  “Robert?”

  “Winston? Is that you?”

  “Yes, sir. So we’re the latest victims of the infamous Captain Malicious?” The KST pilot sounded almost amused.

  “Are you under contract with the Vixx’r?”

  “Roger that, and the damn Sludgers weren’t going to let us heed your call for surrender, not until we decided to take matters into our hands.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that, Win. The last thing we want to do is fire on KST ships.”

  “You may not have a choice. After all the crap that came down after your arrest, the aliens have essentially nationalized the company. And it’s happening to the other shippers, as well. The Vixxie are clamping down on all movement within the Reaches.”

  “Sorry to hear that. But you can relax. We’re just after the cargo and then you’ll be on your way.”

  “Eh, excuse me, Captain Malicious, but could you use a few more recruits? There’s no way I’m going to carry another ounce of Vixx’r cargo, even if it is for KST.”

  “Damn, Winston, you know you’re welcome here, but what about Elizabeth and the kids?”

  “She’ll be fine with it. She hit the roof when she found out we were hauling Vixx’r cargo; been wanting me to resign anyway.”

  “This is more than just resigning; this is joining the other team. Once the Vixx’r you have onboard report you, you’ll be just like us.”

  “That’s not going to be a problem, Robert. Our two Vixx’r passengers won’t be reporting anything to anyone, not now or ever.”

  “Understood, Win. I’m maneuvering the Malicious over to you. Our landing bay is large enough for your ship, so come on in. By the way, what cargo are you carrying?”r />
  “You’ll like this. It’s gold, nothing but gold, and a hell of a lot of it.”

  Robert looked at the image of Drake still on a side screen. The man’s face was absolutely aglow. “Looks like we hit the jackpot, Mister Drake. Are you happy now?”

  “It’s a start, Kincaid. It’s a start.”

  8

  WITHIN a month of commandeering Winston’s ship, fourteen other KST crews had sought out Kincaid and his pirates and joined up, ships and all. That’s when things began to change.

  When the newly reactivated Revenge came in contact with another KST ship, they were met with a less than cordial welcome. It was one of the better armed vessels and they opened fire on the forty-gun dreadnaught. Javon Steele was in command of the Revenge at that time and he reluctantly sent a blast into the aft section of the ship. Half the KST ship disappeared, and yet still their weapons continued to fire. He was left with no choice. A second plasma missile entered through the bridge window.

  A rescue and recovery team went aboard the drifting death ship and found twelve dead Vixx’r, along with two Humans bodies. Steele was devastated, as was Robert. The two dead Human pilots had been close friends of his, both of his generation. They had once traveled the asteroids of Nina-Crist together.

  It turned out, that with more KST crews deserting, the Vixx’r found it necessary to change tactics. The aliens now comprised the bulk of the crew for the transports, while leaving only two Human pilots onboard.

  With Robert’s pirate army now numbering just over two hundred men and women, new recruits from KST desertions suddenly came to a screeching halt. The Vixx’r weren’t taking any chances and held a tight rein on the Human pilots. It also became more difficult to attack the cargo ships, as they began to move in caravans and often protected by one or more destroyers.

  In the meantime, Robert had every weapon they could salvage from his derelict fleet attached to the commandeered KST ships. He was building a navy, and a powerful one at that.

  One of the last crews to desert before the change in crew makeup had just come from Crinous, the mining capital of the Reaches. The planet was rich in gold, silver, quartz and other precious gems, and over the years it had become the single-most important source for this material in the entire Vixx’r Confederation.

  Robert was told by his new recruits that a massive caravan was being formed near the planet that would carry a year’s supply of valuable resources out of the Reaches and into more secure Vixx’r space. There would be twenty huge cargo ships, plus an escort of nearly as many warships.

  “That’s more firepower than we’ve ever gone up against,” Javon Steele said.

  “Yeah, but it sure beats the nickel-and-diming we’ve been doing recently,” Sean Sinclair countered. “It could probably be done by consolidating all our assets instead of having them spread all over the area.”

  “They’ll be expecting us to take a shot at it,” Robert said. “It could mean more casualties than we’ve ever taken. Do you think the men—and women—are up for it?”

  “Considering the size of the haul, hell even I would risk it,” Drake said with a wicked grin.

  “That’s saying something.” Robert mirrored Drake’s expression. And then his grin vanished. “If we attempt this, it will have to be run like a military operation. It will be multi-faceted. The escorts will have to be taken out and the convoy ships prevented from running. Then once we have access to the haulers, we’ll have to decide either to off-load the cargo on-site or bring the ships back to base.”

  “Trailing twenty huge container ships back here would leave a pretty big wake and jeopardize base security,” Sinclair pointed out.

  “But if we off-load on-site that means maintaining a security screen for several hours after the battle. The word will be out the moment we show up on their screens and the Sludgers will have re-enforcements on the way in a heartbeat. We may have to fight a second engagement before breaking off and heading back to base.”

  There was a long moment of silence around the table as each man ran through his own set of risk-versus-reward scenarios. For his part, Robert had accomplished more with less during his military days, but back then he had professional crews and top-grade equipment at his disposal. His current force consisted of mostly roughneck mule-drivers, who, although they could hold their own in a bar fight, weren’t anywhere near a cohesive fighting unit. They did fine during individual hit-and-run pirate operations, but this would be completely different.

  “If I was still in the Navy, this decision would be mine, and mine alone. But I’m not, so let’s see a show of hands. And if it’s a go, then I say we still run it by the men. After all, I believe that’s how real pirates used to do it—more democracy than dictatorship.”

  “With the amount of reward we’re talking about, I think I know what the men will say,” Drake said.

  As the hands around the table slowly went up, Drake’s smile grew wider with each additional ‘yes’ vote. Robert knew he held an entirely different perspective on money and wealth than did Drake, but he began to wonder if there wasn’t anything the man would do for a dollar?

  He looked into the alternately worried and excited eyes of his senior staff he sighed. The vote was in.

  “Let’s go for it.”

  *****

  THE planet Crinous was a desolate, hostile place with an atmosphere comprised mainly of methane and with innumerable active volcanoes darkening the sullen sky with thick clouds of gray ash. But it was this constant churning of the deep interior mantle of the planet that brought forth a plethora of riches to the surface, allowing the rugged crews of aliens and Humans to fill the vast cargo holds of dozens of Vixxie ships heading back to the core worlds of the Vixx’r Confederation.

  Kincaid was still amazed that the aliens could worship gold and silver even more than Humans. It went against the odds that the first intelligent race Humanity encountered in the galaxy would place value on the same metal and baubles Humans coveted. Yet it was this overlapping in the perceived value of an object that often provided the catalyst for conflict. The Humans and Vixx’r were almost too alike; a butting of heads was inevitable. And so the only two civilized species in the known universe went to war, which said a lot about the word civilized.

  When the aliens first annexed the Reaches, it was Crinous that they prized the most. The planet now supplied an estimated thirty percent of the precious metals for the Vixx’r race, so it was no wonder that the largest share of their merchant fleet was stationed off the planet at any given time.

  Prior to Earth’s abandonment of the Reaches, Crinous had provided its share of riches to the UPE as well, yet the Vixx’r employed near-slave labor to increase that production significantly. Kincaid had visited the planet back in the time before the Vixx’r arrived, but not since. Others in his crew had, including Bondel Drake. His marauder could move more freely throughout the Reaches than could the Malicious.

  Crinous was located twenty-two light-years from Ione, and the journey there would take three days traveling the smaller, localized tramlines. Kincaid sent Drake ahead to scout the path, knowing that if his ship was spotted by any Vixx’r patrols he would be allowed passage. The Malicious, Revenge and the eighteen newly-beefed up KST ships would follow four hours behind, allowing for time to disengage if Drake found the field of battle to be a little too hot.

  The last report Kincaid had from Fleet placed the Vixxie military forces within the Reaches at just under three hundred warships of various classifications. For the aliens, that wasn’t a lot. It was believed that their entire war machine consisted of over twenty thousand vessels. The UPE’s sat at a mere twelve thousand.

  The letters-of-marque from President Simms called for him to engage solely in pirate activities rather than overt military operations. The reason was simple: Earth didn’t want to risk Vixx’r retribution against the Human inhabitants of the Reaches. If there was seen to be on-going military insurgency in the region, the aliens might decide that th
e native Humans there were too much of a risk to be allowed to live. A populous uprising might be squelched with extreme prejudice, if the Vixx’r were given no other option.

  Yet the aliens were as pragmatic as they were ruthless. They knew eliminating over a billion beings spread over a dozen planets would be a daunting task and involve having to move a massive amount of resources from other theaters of operation. Robert and President Simms had discussed this during their handful of strategy links prior to him taking the assignment. It was decided that Robert would limit his activities to mainly piracy, rather than intentionally provoking the aliens. If an uprising did spring up within the Human population of the Reaches, then Robert wouldn’t be responsible. He was in it only for the money, or so the story went.

  The former Naval officer had also been forewarned what would happen if his identity was found out. At that point Captain Robert Kincaid would be essentially excommunicated from his race, declared an outlaw and all his actions disavowed. With the common knowledge that the aliens had spies even on Earth, his disgrace would have to be made public and convincing. He hated that part of the mission, since he still had distant relatives on Earth.

  Even with his public condemnation, Gaolic would know that Robert’s motivations went well beyond simply piracy, yet his crews had a different perspective on their actions. As long as Robert made sure Gaolic realized this, then the Humans of the Reaches would remain safe.

  That was the theory anyway.

  The Crinous Raid would be a mix of these two opposing ideas. First, it would be based solely on a profit-motive, while secondly being executed with military-like precision. If he was able to carry it off, then Gaolic would have trouble labeling the attack as being strategic in nature, not when millions of dollars in loot could be obtained. In addition, it would deal an incredible blow to the fortunes of the entire Vixx’r Confederation. Steps would have to be taken to better secure the Reaches, steps which would involve the transfer of ships-of-the-line from the Midlands. Human lives would be saved, strengthening Earth’s overall force and bringing the liberation of the Reaches one step closer.