CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
Fight back!
There was a knock at the door. The guard opened the door.
"Hi Jessica,” the guard said. "They seem to be meditating or some shit. It's been kind of quiet. Best of luck to you."
"Thanks Randy," Jessica the guard said.
"Now!" Erica yelled.
The five of them attacked at once in a rush. The guards were taken by surprise and beaten down. Keiko had a gun in her hand as she followed Erica out of their prison. Erica saw only a single guard sitting at a table with cards in his shaking hands. He reached for the gun on the table. He aimed at them. Erica and Keiko shot him. His body spun from the impact of the two shots before he landed on the ground.
"See if there's anything to contact Piper or Martha and Gwen," Erica said.
"Maybe he's got a comm device or tablet on him." Lynna knelt by the dead guard.
"Good idea," Mindy said. "I'll go check the unconscious guards we left back there."
"I'll help," Tilly said.
"What was that?" Keiko looked towards the door that led outside Beaumont’s apartment.
Without another word Keiko, went out to check. Erica heard noises that sounded like a firefight. The door shut as she saw Keiko shooting at someone. Erica went to join her when someone kicked her gun out her hand. It was Oscar Beaumont.
"Erica Williams." Beaumont rolled his shoulders and then cracked his knuckles. "It's time for you and me to finish the fight we started. I'm going to kill you this time."
Beaumont flung out a couple of jabs to Erica's face and backed up. Erica side-kicked at his knee. She missed.
They circled each other looking for an opening. They kicked and punched at one another without making any hits. Both were able to dodge or block. But the blocks made Erica's ribs sting. Erica was sure that a strong kick to either side of her ribs might put her down. My right hand is pretty much useless. Maybe I can get close to use my elbows.
Beaumont tackled her and grabbed her broken fingers. Erica head-butted him. Blood spilled from his nose. She punched him in the solar plexus and he stumbled. Erica stood.
She kicked at his head. He ducked and kicked her other leg out from under her. Beaumont stomped down on her head, but Erica had rolled out of the way. They faced each other again. From out of nowhere Beaumont roundhouse punched Erica in the ribs with his lead hand and a slap to the throat. Erica kicked him in the knees, causing him to stumble back.
I can't breathe! I can't breathe!
Beaumont returned to finish the job, but Erica did the unexpected. She dropped to a knee and slung up her broken hand into his groin. Beaumont doubled over. Erica pulled herself to her feet. She raised her good hand in a fist and brought it down on the back of his head. Beaumont collapsed. He didn't get up. Erica fell to her knees.
"Erica!" she heard Tilly shout.
"Ribs hurt..." Erica whispered. Her voice sound like sandpaper. "Can't...breathe well."
"I found the medicine they were keeping from us," Tilly said.
Erica felt a sting on her arm. Then Tilly gave her another shot of something. After a while, the pain went away and she could breathe again.
"Erica! Are you okay?" Erica heard her mother Piper's voice.
"Mom?" Piper face came into view.
"I'm here we made it in," Piper said. "Everything is fine. We'll get you back to the Daughter to get you patched up now. You're safe."
"Daughter?" Erica said. "Where's Guinevere?"
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
Incoming missiles!
A couple of days later the Guinevere finally neared the Lorkiiz starship. During that time, the third shift had taken control of the Guinevere and then first shift replaced them. Finally, second shift crew was back running the Guinevere with Alberta in command.
What the hell am I doing? Alberta wondered again as her Guinevere straight for the Lorkiiz starship. Guinevere is a trader starship not a warship. We don't have the warship hull that can take the punishment of battle. The whole thing is crazy.
Alberta looked at her screens again.
"Missiles armed and ready, captain," Tiffany Williams said at the weapons/tactical station. "I have several dummy missiles ready to go as well to screw with their targeting computer."
"Thanks Tiffany." Alberta looked over at the sensor station. "How much closer will we be in missile range, Fiona?"
"Soon, Captain," Fiona Williams said. "I think they are coming at us with all the speed they can pull."
"I can see their speed on my screen," Alberta said. "How soon should we fire, Tiffany?"
"One hour and twelve minutes."
"Noted." Alberta rubbed her forehead.
"The sensor probes I sent out have shown the Lorkiiz starship has six launching tubes," Fiona said. "We only have four launching tubes."
"We already knew we were outgunned." Alberta nodded. "But we need it confirmed."
"We have plenty of counter missiles and our lasers might be able to stop their missiles," Tiffany said.
"How many probes do we have out there?" Alberta said.
"Twelve," Fiona said.
"Could we use them to take out any of their missiles?" Alberta said.
"Yes," Fiona said. "It'll make use almost blind or nearsighted without them."
"Work with Tiffany to see if it could be done."
"Okay."
Alberta looked at her screens for several minutes as they time went by. "Launch missile, Tiffany!"
"Missiles away, Captain." Tiffany said. "Second missile salvo will be ready in seven minutes."
"Thanks, Tiffany," Alberta said. A military warship would be able to launch salvos in a minute or less, but seven minutes were pretty good for a civilian ship that didn't train that much for ship to ship combat."
"Here they come!" Tiffany said. "They've launched six missiles."
An hour later, Tiffany shouted, "Launching counter-missiles against their first salvo."
Alberta watched the screen. It showed several small counter-missiles headed towards larger missiles that could be nukes or kinetics. The counter-missiles were able to take out five. A single missile continued towards them, but was burned by their lasers.
"Nothing," Fiona said. "A kinetic missile."
"We were lucky this time," Alberta said.
Their four missiles had been taken out by the enemy's counter-missiles. It wasn't look good for them. Six more missiles were on their way and they had four missiles already on the way over. Alberta noticed Tiffany walking over to Fiona to check the senor chief's station and then she returned to her tactical station.
"What are you two up to?" Alberta said. "Actually I hope you are up to something."
"It's the probes, Captain," Tiffany said. "We might be able to surprise them with them."
"Really?"
"They have probes too," Fiona explained. "So we we're going to ram theirs with ours. Ours are moving into position. We need to do it at the same time or they will figure us out in time to send out more probes."
"With their probes taken out, they might be blind for a few seconds," Tiffany said. "Enough time to get more missiles past their counter-missiles."
"Almost ready," Fiona said. "Now!"
Alberta looked at his screen as probes exploded and information was lost.
"Launching four probes," Fiona said. "Six missiles approaching."
"Counter-missiles ready to launch, Captain."
"Launch, Tiffany."
"Shit," Tiffany cursed. "Two missiles got past our counter-missiles."
"Nuke!" Fiona announced. "One’s a nuke."
Lasers sliced into one missile and the second one exploded. Gamma rays burned through space. They struck the electro-magnetic shields and ocean tank surrounding the Guinevere.
Alberta held tightly to her chair arms as the Guinevere shook and lights went out and came back on. Then the light went out and back on.
"We've got leaks of water and radiation, Captain," Agatha Gee at comm stations
announced. "We have people sending repair robots and nanites to fix the damage."
"Damn. Thanks Agatha." Alberta looked at her screens. How many deaths do we have? How bad is the damage to Guinevere? Nothing I'll be able to know, until later. Goddess help us!
"We got two missiles past their counter-missiles!" Tiffany said.
"How many were nukes?"
"Four."
"All?"
"Yes, Captain," Tiffany said.
"How many nukes do we have left?"
"Zero."
"Great." Alberta gazed at her screen showing their two missiles moving in. As they got nearer the enemy's lasers killed one, but the second got through and self-detonated. The missile explosion shot out gamma rays, which burned into the enemy's hull. "I hope that's going to be enough. Maybe we can negotiate with them now."
"We don't have any more nukes."
"Don't tell them that," Alberta said.
"Captain, I have a message from the Lorkiiz starship captain. Sending it to your comm screen."
"Thanks, Agatha." The face of a Lorkiiz appeared on the comm screen. A large lizard head, like the ones Alberta had seen when she was kidnapped by the strange aliens.
"A good fight, Captain Alberta Williams," the Lorkiiz said. "We will leave now, but this isn't over."
"I understand," Alberta replied. "We will be watching for you."
"Trade is strange to us," Lorkiiz said. "Vengeance is not, and it can be done another day."
The screen went blank. Alberta checked another screen that showed area of space around them and saw the Lorkiiz starship turning around. It would head out of the Collard System to get out the star's gravity well so it could make a jump to hyperspace.
"We bluffed them?" Tiffany said.
"Captain, I have message coming in from a man," Agatha said.
"Let me guess," Fiona added. "It's from one of the spaceships headed our way."
Alberta checked a screen and saw two local spaceships headed their way from behind. "Looks like some of the locals wanted some vengeance of their own for Shelly's destruction."
"Oh shit!" Fiona said. "We have a new problem; several starships are about to jump out of hyperspace."
No! Not more Lorkiiz!
"Their jump out of hyperspace is successful," Fiona said.
Alberta looked at her screens. Who could it be? What's going to happen now? We can only wait. How long will it be? Alberta struck her chair arm. No not again. I would rather die than be in the hands of those things again!
"I've got a message coming in!" Agatha cried. "It's the Spirit! Captain Emily Zhou says Hi!"
"The Spirit?"
"I'm now getting recognition signals from the new starships. One is Spirit and another is the Victorian trader starship Cornwallis. We also have the USS Boston a Yin Confederation Navy Light Cruiser."
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
A family meal.
Erica twirled the spaghetti noodles around her fork as her mother Alberta approach the table.
"May I join you?" Alberta said.
"Sure." Erica nodded. "How are things going, Mother?"
Alberta set her tray of food and seated herself. "The Boston's marines are in complete control of the Lorkiiz starship now."
Erica nodded with her mouth full. She already knew the USS Boston had forced the surrender of the Lorkiiz starship and sent over their marines.
"Also you might want to know that Oscar Beaumont is behind bars along with a number of his men," Alberta said. "Including the Chief of Police, Ms. Chettum, who had been assisting Beaumont all along. By the way, another naval starship just jumped out of hyperspace. It's the heavy cruiser USS Atlanta and it brought with it alien contact specialists and diplomats from all around the Yin Confederation."
"How are the repairs going?" Erica asked once she had swallowed.
"They are coming along great. We'll be ready to go in no time," Alberta said. "We've got a number of angry customers since we have failed to deliver lots of goods on time. Emily and the Spirit have been kind enough to take our remaining cargo off our hands for now. That can help a little, but if any good comes out of this, we've made friends with the locals here at Collard. I think there might be a market we could get into. Eventually, we could even make a profit after all. Goddess help us."
"Mmmm." Erica chewed on her garlic bread. "So we get to keep the ship?"
"Yes, Erica." Alberta put some butter on her English muffin. "We aren't that deep in the red that we'll lose everything. I was worried about that."
"Will the Lorkiiz come after us again?" Erica said.
"I've no idea," Alberta said. "It seems to have just been this one family that were after us. Maybe it's over…or not. I don't know, but for now I want to leave this miss up to the professionals. Let the military and government deal with the aliens."
"Good idea." Erica smiled.
Feather’s Blades #6 will be out in Aug 2016.
The Gory Pearl of Doom It will be out in Sept. 2016.
Feather’s Blades #7 will be out in Oct 2016.
Feather’s Blades #8 will be out in Dec. 2016.
Space Assassins will be out in Jan. 2017.
Feather’s Blades #9 will be out in Feb. 2017.
Fall of the Airship Falcon will be out in March. 2017.
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Traders traveling through space for profit and adventure.
In Star Wars IV: A New Hope we meet a trader/smuggler captain and his co-pilot. Before I fell in love with the tv show Firefly, I had already read the Solar Queen books by Andre Norton. These cool books start with Sargasso of Space. Have you read C.J. Cherryh’s books on space traders like Downbelow Station, Merchanter’s Luck, and The Pride of Chanur. One common theme is independent space traders, who don’t work for one of the large corporations. Usually the corporations have a fleet of fancy new starships, while our heroes starship is old and rusty. All of which make for great stories.
I’m also influenced by Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Imagine a world where humans are genderless, except when it’s mating season. Your body becomes male or female. The catch is that one year you could be male and the next year you could be female.
There’s been plenty of stories of ships full of only men, from Moby Dick by Herman Melville to Sargasso of Space. So why not a ship full of only women? Though these women are not all actually what modern day humans would call women. Their ancestors traveled from Earth in generation spaceships and genetically engineered their children to be female. Only they created two types of females. O-female and T-female. O is for ovary and T is for testicles. Both look female and have breasts that are capable of producing milk. Only the O-females came give birth and have female genitals, while the T-females have male genitals.
In my novel you meet Erica, who is T-female. She has two mothers. Alberta and Piper. Alberta is T-female and Piper is O-female. You could also say that Piper is Erica’s O-mother or birth mother, while Alberta is Erica’s T-mother.
Another thing you will notice is that Erica has a very large family. This is an idea I borrowed from C.J. Cherryh’s books, where ships were run by families or clans. Where ship crews would marry other ship crews, so as not to get too inbred. I was also influenced by my own family. I grew up on a farm where my family worked together to get everyone’s crops planted and harvested. Back then it was my dad, my uncle, my brothers, and cousins all helping out. The Feather clan working together.
I had a lot of influences that went into creating this book and the books that will come in this series. But when it comes down to it all of these crazy ideas come from my own weird mind.
The second book in this series will be called Space Assassins. It will be out in January 2017.
I hope you injoy them.
Check out my website:
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Starship Guinevere (Star Traders Book 1) Page 12