END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3

by John Short

  “Very good Jackal, we'll be going into slip soon.” Jon informed him. Turning back to the ship's navigator he said, “Someone probably bribed the charters to omit it. Amend the charts to show its location in the future.” Jon told the Navigator. “Now, take us back on course, best speed to destination.”

  One of the legitimate crewmen asked Jon, “So now our ship just belongs to you and BBITCo?”

  “Legally yes. Morally, no.” Jon told the male who was working the COM center. “I'm within my rights to claim the ship because I captured it from the hands of pirates. That makes it salvage and any lawful citizen can claim her. What I have in mind to actually do is to use her in a raid on this pirate base at Canari and then turn her back for Lexon II where I will contact TransCo. and offer them back their ship. I'm not in the ship stealing business. I already own four armed ships of my own for rim hauling.”

  “You may want to rethink that idea.” a male in a business suit said as he entered the bridge.

  “Who might you be?” Jon asked him.

  “Names Jinkly, co-owner of TransCo. Its a pleasure to finally meet the famous Jon Connell. The one owner who not only went up against the Worker's Guild to hire blacklisted Engineers, but was the first to buy surplus Warships with full armaments to haul out to the rim worlds, brilliant idea by the way. None of the rest of us thought of it, we all had to have our ships built in the big ship builder's yard at Hungurt. The Defiance was the first one any company bought except for your four. Too bad we didn't hire anyone who knew how to shoot those impressive looking guns mounted on her hull.” The man was slightly taller than a Lex, but much shorter than Jon. “I have spent the last few months hiding in the galley of this vessel pretending to be the cook. As soon as you can get me back to Lexon II, I'll have the paperwork drawn up and turn her over to you legally. Its far to dangerous out here for my company to risk losing another ship like this. I hope you'll find a better use for her. Besides, five is a nice number to have when you're just getting started.”

  “Admiral Connell, sir. Message from the Mercury.” the female COM officer told him. “She's confirming your coords and says she can be there in four hours.”

  “Thank you crewman.. ahh sorry, I mean well, shoot! How many females are on this boat?” Jon asked.

  “There were ten sir.” the female coms officer told him. “The pirates took them somewhere. I think some of them are hiding on the ship. I know at least two who were taken off by another of the pirate vessels.”

  “Wonderful!” Jon exclaimed. “Its bad enough I have one on my assault team and another as my Chief Engineer, but at least I can count on those two.” Jon was beginning to get flustered. “Now you're telling me I've got ten more hiding somewhere on the ship, plus however many are coming in on Mercury with our assault teams. I can't be responsible for all of them if I can't even find them!”

  “I can try to get them to show themselves. Maybe you could talk to them and let them know they're safe now.”

  “No! One look at me and they'll all jump out of the nearest air lock! Tell them to find some place where the danger of sudden decompression is minimal and to stay put. We're flying this ship into a hive of criminals known to have no compassion. I expect us to take a lot of very unfriendly fire!” Jon warned them all. “The last thing I need is to have a bunch of hysterical females running around screaming.”

  “Navigation reports that we will be leaving slipspace soon Admiral.” one of the bridge crew reported.

  “Very well. Jinkly, can you fly this ship while I go see to getting my team on the ground?” Jon addressed the male still standing on the bridge in his suit.

  “I believe I can Captain.”

  “I don't know where the coords will put us. I hope it will be out on the rim of the system. However, in case we slide in next to something mean and nasty, be ready to open fire as best as you can.” Jon told everyone. “If that means standing in an air lock and throwing rocks, just make sure they don't hit my shuttles!”

  “You have the bridge Jinkly” and Jon turned and hurried to meet his teams down in the ship's hold where the three attack shuttles sat waiting.

  Formulating plans in his head as he ran for the ship's hold, Jon knew that the force available to him was too small to try to attack the surface of any planet. They would need to wait for Mercury to arrive before going planetside. That left only the ships they might find in orbit. If they could each take out the engines on just one ship, before moving on to the next, they might be able to have a bunch of crippled pirate ships floating in space when his carrier showed up.

  Rushing into the hold, Jon outlined his plans to the other flight teams and they all agreed. Each shuttle would pick a ship, destroy its engines, and then move on to another vessel to repeat the process of engine wrecking.

  “That's fine for you fliers.” Rik complained. “What about my grubs?”

  “I figured we'd come back and get your teams before we drop planetside.” Jon explained. “If all we're doing is taking out their engines we won't be trying to capture any of them yet. They won't be going anywhere and we'll have a couple of hours to kill until Mercury shows up. Plenty of time for your guys to go play.” Jon saw that his friend wasn't happy about his plans, but that he'd go along with them. “Besides, who is going to make sure that this crew of so called loyalists doesn't turn on us the minute we all leave?” Jon had given the Prince what he needed. While making sure that his brother-in-law, and Royal Family member, was as safe as possible for the moment, he had also given him a job that could turn dangerous if the crew of the re-captured pirate ship turned rogue. In effect, Jon had saved the Royal's pride.

  “Attention please,” came over the Defiance's ship wide coms. “We'll be leaving the slipway in five minutes. Repeat, normal space in five minutes.”

  “That guy is too polite to command a Warship.” Zeprik commented.

  “He's the cook. That's our signal.” Jon said, “All flight crews to your shuttles and prep for a hot entry. Grubs, you guys get off the deck and back inside the main ship. Rik, take a team up and secure the bridge.”

  “On my way Butcher. Good hunting.” Zeprik called out the names of three of his teammates to follow him and everyone scrambled to get to their places. Jon and his flying team ran to their shuttle and got themselves seated in their flight chairs. Just as they got themselves strapped in and the tail ramp raised, Rik came over the com. “Normal space in ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, normal NOW!”

  “Engage the maglifts,” Jon ordered.

  “Operational,” came the reply from Jarrieal.

  “Weapons ready?” Jon asked.

  “Waiting on standby.” Mopie' told him.

  “Navigation?”

  “Waiting on targets sir.” came the lisp of Legs' reply.

  “Butcher, this is Rik. We've come out at the far rim of a small system. There is a main cluster of planets at the inner life rings, several gas giants, and some smaller stuff. Not sure if its natural or manufactured. We're maneuvering to stay clear of most of it. While we take some scans.”

  “These people may not know this ship was captured.” Mopie remarked. “Remember, their decoy was still sitting in the hold when we took her. So they had not yet returned it to their leaders.”

  “Now I wish we didn't throw it away.” Jon admitted. “We could have used the shuttles to tow it closer in and pretended to be friendlies longer.”

  “Its worth it to be rid of the stench of those pirates, Captain.” Jarrieal said.

  Jon was struck with another idea. Linking his COM to the bridge he called, “Rik, ask if anyone there knows of any other cargo that the pirates stored in another hold.”

  A few seconds later Zeprik replied, “Negative Butcher. They only have the one hold and you're currently in it.”

  “Then we go with the original plan. Open the bays. We may as well start stirring the place up.”

  “Door's coming open now, sir.” One of the grubs who had taken up
position at the control room for the hold told him. With some protest, the large doors to the cargo hold slowly opened. When they had parted enough to allow the shuttles to exit the larger Destroyer, Jon lead the other two ships into the darkness of deep space. After taking a few seconds to orient himself, he pointed his shuttle toward the distant sun and pushed the throttles wide open. The remaining pair of attack craft followed closely behind.

  As the Defiance's path brought her closer to the inner planets a strange voice came across the coms. “Approaching warship. Identify yourself”

  Zeprik motioned for the coms officer to send the standard reply. “This is the Destroyer Defiance.”

  “You're on the list of recent acquisitions. Took you long enough to get here.” Then in a few seconds the voice said “Move into place at the Canari docks for mounting of the Kinetic Bomber and then take off. You'll receive instructions on targets at a later date. We want you out of the system in an hour!”

  Jon ordered his shuttle group to hold their fire and wait to see what was going to happen. He figured that the sixty grubs still onboard the Defiance could handle any problems with the ship. There appeared to be lots of targets floating around the system for them to attack. Once whatever this bombing system was had been installed they could inspect it and determine its use. Meanwhile, if the pirates stayed on schedule, the weapon would be mounted and Defiance would be moving out of the way long before Jon and his teams could strike. Still they would be taking several of the smaller pirate vessels before Mercury arrived with the majority force of ground troops and transport shuttles for a full assault of the planet. Meanwhile he had his three ship team moved into position to be ready to fire on as many of the pirate vessels crowded around the third planet as they could launch their missiles on quickly.

  “Hey Defiance, your cargo list says you were supposed to bring back the bait. Where is that beautiful little pleasure boat?” the radio voice asked.

  “That thing almost killed me and my men!” a voice exploded over the coms. Jon recognized the voice as his friend and brother-in-law, Prince Zeprik, speaking with all of his Royal authority, self-righteous indignation and with a slightly nasal quality that could only come from a person holding their nose. “It broke up. Just as this ship was taking us into her hold. Another five minutes and instead of a shiny new Star Destroyer, I'd be flying a pressure suit out in space somewhere.” Taking several deep breathes, Rik continued, “We left it in pieces someplace between somewhere and nowhere with a new captain and crew.” At least that much was true. It had broken up, and they had forced the pirate captain and his crew onboard the wreck before tossing it out into space along the slipway where it would never be found.

  “Well, it served its purpose. We'll just have to build another one. Yours is the last ship to be fitted from the legitimate fleet boats. The sooner we get yours done, the sooner we can start on the rest of the ships sitting around out here. Those guys are starting to over stay their welcome.”

  “I thought you welcomed everybody.”

  “Only so much a person can stand of a good thing. We've been getting a steady list of complaints from the surface about bar fights and missing daughters. The sooner we get them fitted and out doing their thing, the happier everyone will be. That looks good Defiance. We'll grab you and ease you into the docking rings. Then it’s just a simple matter of hanging the bomber, making a few connections, uploading the software and you're good to go.”

  “Make it fast. Word is the Peacekeepers are getting close to finding this place.”

  “Not a chance. The Boss is paying good credits to keep it off the star charts. Only way they find us is with a five hundred cycle old chart. Even then, the exact coords are too far away now due to the drift. Of course there is always pure blind luck.” Even after millions and millions of cycles, the universe was still expanding and the distances between planets were always changing. A five hundred cycle old star chart might show a planet named Canari, but the location would be from five hundred cycles ago, not the actual location of today. Anyone using coords from an old chart would be hundreds of light years away from finding the planet or anything else.

  With Defiance locked into immense docking rings and huge robotic arms bringing massive parts in to be attached to her hull, Zeprik sat on the bridge and watched the work progress on the main view screen. The device appeared to be some kind of huge cannon with a square section at the rear and brackets along the barrel that was being bolted to the outside of the ship. When the sound of cutting torches was heard coming from the area where the cannon was being mounted, several of the troopers removed their armor and quickly dressed the part of pirates in loose fitting civilian clothes. Whoever was cutting into their hull made a very precise opening and then installed a fully functioning pressure hatch. The new hatch was located near the ship's computer banks and when a team of techs in white lab coats came through the new hatch only to cut more new holes and feed new cables into them, the pretend pirates started to get suspicious. “Prik, you better get down here. These guys are hooking something into the computers.”

  “Coming.” Zeprik replied. Try as he might, his troopers refused to call him Rik over the coms. They had dubbed him Prik because of his insistence that the rules be followed at all times and now he was stuck with the name. It both angered him and endeared him to his team. They trusted him in battle to bring them home safe and with his ability to take a joke. Of course Jon Connell was the only one who knew his true identity. If his team knew that they were calling the Crown Prince of Lexon II a Prik, they'd be appalled with themselves. Zeprik would not be the one to tell them the truth. After all, a Prince was allowed to have at least one secret for himself.

  Coming up on the location of the work being done on the Defiance, Zeprik removed his armor and his uniform top. He figured he didn't have any way to get as dirty as the pirate captain had been, so his uniform leggings and undershirt would have to do for his pirate costume. Carrying his plasma rifle across his chest he strode into the data banks and found the techs busily at work connecting cables and adding entire panels of circuit breakers. “What the blast are you doing to my ship?” he demanded.

  “Just making the last of the hook ups.” the lead tech told him. “When we're finished we'll show you the new firing controls that we'll install in the weapons center.”

  “Don't show me,” Zeprik told the tech, “Show my first. EYES! GET IN HERE!” he shouted.

  A tall, well-muscled warrior came strolling in to lean against the data banks with his own rifle hanging across his chest. This was indeed the number two man in Zeprik's squad and his call sign was actually Eyes. He had also opted to remove his uniform tunic and he'd rolled up the sleeves of his undergarment to let his heavily muscled arms and the many tattoos along both of them be exposed. In an almost sneering voice he asked “Prik” what he wanted.

  “These people are making changes to our weapons systems. I need you to watch them. Anything looks wrong, blast large holes through their middles.” Zeprik smiled, playing the part of a ruthless pirate.

  “Sounds like fun.” Eyes responded as he put a grin on his own face. “Can I blast them anyway? I ain't blasted nobody in a while.”

  “Let them finish the job first, then you can hole em all you like.” Zeprik told his team leader and weapons specialist.

  Under an hour later, the techs had everything hooked into the Defiance's systems and had shown “Eyes” how it all worked. Basically the new weapon was a high tech cannon that had only one use. It fired long poles from space at targets on a planet's surface using a series of magnetic replusors that were visible along the barrel of the cannon. All testing had shown that the specially shaped poles hit the ground with such force that just one well placed pole would cause the total destruction of major cities. Leaving nothing in its wake but a huge crater and some twisted rubble. All that had to be done was to bring the ship in line to make the shot and when the computers showed the target was in the proper alignment hit the new laun
ch switch and watch as millions died in a strike from space for which there was no possible defense. The poles were made from a special alloy that easily withstood the heat of entering an atmosphere and still hit their target with the force of twenty atomics.

  “Who came up with this thing?” Eyes asked the lead tech.

  “Its a new design from the King family labs. They came up with it to make taking out the cities that still refuse to pay tribute to the families who run the rim easier.” he was told. “The big wigs are getting tired of being ignored by some of the colonies. The syndicate runs things out here. Always have, always will. Nobody on the inner planets gives a turd what happens as long as the goods keep coming in.”

  “How many ships are getting these weapons?” Eyes asked.

  “Four or five of the biggest only. In fact, yours is the last one we've got ready. The others have all left for their targets already.” one of the other techs told him. “Each of you have a target already selected in the system. Once you leave our space, the software will unlock the target information. We're done here. Tell your Captain to pull out. Once you're clear a shuttle will meet you to attach the magazine canister with the ammo for the cannon. You’re only getting five shots for this weapon. Use them wisely. Then you just take off in any direction, enter a slipway and the computer will give you your destination.”

  “Once you've unlocked the software make sure you go directly to your target. The bosses get really PO'd if you deviate from their orders. They are all paranoid of giving any of you pirates these things. They're afraid that you'll come back here and blow them up.”

  “Why bite the hand that keeps you flying?” Eyes asked innocently.

  Once the techs had left and Rik had ordered Defiance away from the docking rings, a shuttle approached and attached a large container to the bottom of the ship under the cannon before flying away to do whatever pirate shuttles do when working from their home base.

  “We're clear, sir.” the nav officer told Zeprik.