In that fraction of a second, Cunningham also had a glimpse of what Hawkins was capable of, and he suddenly realized pirate captains didn’t survive for years in the Badlands without doing whatever the situation demanded. This was not a man to have as an enemy, at least not yet. A bit taken back by the failure of the Mallory move to soften the observer demand, he said in a mild tone, “Of course, if you would prefer someone else?”
“Not at all,” Hawkins quickly replied, “Captain Mallory is always welcome aboard Predator.”
The moment passed and the meeting proceeded quickly. A schedule and method for the final payment to the pirates was agreed upon. Hawkins made a promise to return in four months for a final briefing prior to departure on the mission. It was all cordial enough but the observer add-on was not conducive to a warm departure. Handshakes were made all around at the briefing room hatch, and the pirates walked out to return to the shuttle bay. Captain Mallory walked with Rafe Hawkins while Tactical, Baby Doll, and Blondie walked close behind. Blondie had started out slowly to allow the two captains to get a lead and some privacy, but the two pirate women moved quickly to ensure they were only a step behind their boss as they moved to the hangar bay. Blondie had no choice but to keep up. They walked in silence and arrived at the shuttle bay. Although the walk took only a few minutes, it seemed infinitely longer.
“Well, Captain Mallory, we’ll see you in four months,” Rafe said formally and turned to board the shuttle.
Sky held up her right hand with her forefinger extended in a “wait-one-minute” gesture. “A moment, please.” The last word made it sound like a request but the tone left no doubt that it really was not. She then turned to the three women and added, “Could I have some time with Captain Hawkins, please.”
The three women moved to the far side of the hangar bay and began to move the equipment gathered by Blondie to the rear of the shuttle to load into the small cargo bay. Rafe gestured to the cramped interior of the shuttle. The two entered and sat across from each other over a small table.
Sky put her elbows on the table and leaned toward Hawkins. “I get why you might not like this observer idea being sprung on you at the last minute, but I didn’t expect this reaction. Is it the idea or are you just opposed to it being me?”
Rafe stared at her and then stared through her again.
“Come back to me,” she said softly.
Rafe refocused on her. “Sorry.” He smiled apologetically. “I was seeing the future.” He looked at her intently. Then Rafe gave her his bright warm smile. “You really don’t see it, do you?”
“I know the mission will be dangerous, but I’ll take my chances just like you.”
“I’m not talking about the mission. I’m looking further out.”
Sky looked inquiring at Hawkins and he continued, “We think so much alike in some areas, I forget you are not a pirate and therefore are not automatically suspicious of everyone.”
“Enlighten me.”
“The mission is dangerous, and the observer idea is marginal at best, so why does Lord Cunningham want to risk one of his best young commanders on it? I think the Aurora Empire will win the war outright or, at worse, end up with a favorable treaty to end the war. I think Lord Cunningham also believes that will happen and is looking beyond the current war to the post war universe. Once the war is over, we pirates will go from paid mercenaries necessary for victory to an embarrassing relic of the recent, regrettable conflict. Also, the Empire will seek to reestablish themselves in areas they have vacated. One of those places will be the Badlands. The Goths and pirates will be running wild there. Who better to send than a commander who has great experience and insight into the operating procedures of both the Goths and pirates? Cunningham will send you to the Badlands to reestablish the Empire’s presence there after this war. In essence, when I take you on this mission, I will be training you to hunt me.”
Sky started to shake her head and stopped. She now stared into nothing for a few seconds, and suddenly knew what Hawkins had said was absolutely true. Lord Cunningham is exactly the type of man to be several jumps ahead of everyone else and considering how to shape the post war universe even now. This interpretation did make a great deal of sense. She had thought Rafe was ruthless but now realized Cunningham was easily his match in that particular trait.
They stared at each other for several seconds. Rafe spoke first, “One of the reasons we wanted Blondie is, although well qualified in her field, she is a young, inexperienced officer who will focus on her job and stay out of all other areas. She will return to you a better, more experienced officer but nothing more. As an observer, you will have no job aboard ship so you can see and absorb everything around you. You already have the military experience to put it all into context and to exploit this knowledge on both a strategic and tactical level. That will make you the foremost Royal Navy authority on pirate operations when you return to home space. You will be the obvious choice to command any flotilla sent to the Badlands in the future.”
“I won’t hunt you.” Sky spoke with finality.
“Hopefully, it won’t come to that. It is possible many of our post war aims will overlap, and we can work together in the Badlands,” Rafe smiled. “I would rather have you there than some new guy.”
“I won’t hunt you,” she repeated softly.
“I know,” he replied just as softly.
They looked at each for a few more seconds. Then they stood and departed the shuttle together. They shook hands and Hawkins smiled at her, “Hell, maybe we’ll all be killed on the mission and the problem will be solved that way.”
Sky smiled in return, “One can only hope.”
Rafe spoke as Sky turned to leave. “One more thing. As stated earlier, dress is very informal aboard Predator.”
“I know. I will try to blend in.” She turned back toward him and spoke softly. “I was thinking of wearing a new dagger recently given to me but I wouldn’t want to offend you or your crew. Your opinion?” She was referring to a ship’s dagger given to her by Raferty himself several weeks earlier.
“If you want to wear it to accessorize your outfit, then no. It is not a fashion statement. If you have no problem sticking it into somebody if the situation calls for it, then by all means.”
Sky smiled, but her eyes were cold, “Then I’ll wear it. See you in a few months, Raferty Hawkins.”
“If I’m not here, it’s because I’m dead.”
As Sky departed, the three women moved to join Hawkins at the shuttle hatch and the four of them watched her exit the shuttle bay.
“To leave is to die a little,” quoted Blondie.
The three pirates turned and stared at her. “It’s a French proverb,” protested Blondie in response to their stares. Nobody said a word.
Chapter 7
The four pirates loaded Blondie’s equipment into the shuttle. The return to Predator was uneventful. As the shuttle party exited the landing bay, Hawkins remarked, “I’ll send the order to Vindictive and Bandit to get into the yards for overhaul. They need to get the yard upgrades done now. I’ll also get a message to Dylan Whitlock.” He walked to his day cabin as the shuttle party broke up.
Once the shuttle was secure aboard Predator and the munitions delivered by the Zeke cargo shuttle were stowed in a magazine, the ship quickly moved away from the orbiting Royal Navy fleet.
Predator departed Wanderlust controlled space in just over two hours. As the ship approached Nemesis, O’Hare turned her ship toward the Badlands and both ships increased to maximum sustained speed. The ships maintained thirty minutes of separation both vertically and laterally. Sensors were at full power and all bridge stations, including weapons, were manned.
Blondie was given an officer’s cabin along the same passageway with Tactical and Baby Doll, just down the corridor from the Captain’s cabin and his day cabin. Her cabin was long and narrow and the size of a large closet. But compared to the cabin she shared with two other junior officers on Sirocco, th
is was heaven. She had privacy and no space had to be given over to uniforms or the personal safety-and-survival gear all Empire crewmembers were issued and had to store in their quarters. Baby Doll’s compartment was on one side of her with a shared head in between. Tactical’s cabin was on the other side of her and the Captain’s quarters and day cabin were only a few steps away. She was squaring away her gear when a knock came on the head’s hatch. A moment later Baby Doll opened the hatch and announced, “Time for a tour.” Blondie smiled and nodded. It was clear Baby Doll was to be her chaperon, but she was happy with that.
The pair started on the bridge and worked through the entire ship. Baby Doll introduced Blondie to crewmembers on the bridge and to all the department heads as they made the rounds of the ship. Blondie concluded everyone was being reluctantly friendly to the Captain’s new friend. She would have to earn their trust through hard work and doing what she came aboard to accomplish. She was okay with that. In fact, she looked forward to it.
The last stop on the tour was the ship’s armory. Baby Doll had the armorer issue Blondie one shooter with three power packs and a recharger. The armorer also handed Baby Doll a ship’s dagger and a scabbard. The dagger’s thin blade had PREDATOR engraved in ornate lettering on one side. Baby Doll turned to her companion. “We don’t have a common nation or planet. We don’t have uniforms. We don’t have an oath of loyalty.” She handed the dagger to Blondie. “What we do have is our ship. This is your tie to Predator. Everyone on the ship has an identical dagger. We take this very seriously. As long as you have the dagger, the Captain will consider you as one of his crew. If you give up the blade, you are no longer a Predator crewmember. If you betray us, we will take the dagger off your dead body.”
Blondie slowly turned the dagger in her hand. “Does each ship have a dagger?”
“Yes, each with their own style and their own ship’s name on the blade. They are not for decoration. If you notice, everyone wears them within easy reach and we use them if necessary. When dirtside, be prepared to use yours for protection. Also, people will try to steal your blade. Apparently, they are quite the collector’s items.”
“How do I carry this?”
“Any way you want. Just make sure it is always handy. Practice with it so you’re comfortable drawing it out quickly and having it in your hand. Trust me, you will need it.”
Baby Doll and Blondie returned to the bridge after a two-hour tour and many shaking of hands. Baby Doll assigned Blondie the station next to hers at the back of the bridge behind the captain’s command seat. She would function as assistant intel officer, and as a watch officer for the Ops Department. She would learn to be an officer of the deck (OD) and take command of Predator as a regular command watch stander. The number of watches she stood would be less than others, as her primary duties took precedence, but she would stand watch. Blondie was excited about that. As an intel officer in the Royal Navy, she would never have been allowed to qualify as OD, as that was for unrestricted line officers. The less formal pirates had no such reservations.
Blondie brought her workstation computer online, set up her own passwords, and familiarized herself with the controls. Not much different than the Royal Navy’s workstations so the work went quickly. She looked at the sensor readouts and then leaned toward Baby Doll at her own station.
“Why is Nemesis so far out?”
Baby Doll answered as she continued to work her station. “If we hit any contacts, only one ship will appear on the newcomer’s sensors. That pirate ship gives warning to the ship not on sensors, and we decide what to do based on who the intruder is. A ship would have to approach at just the right angle and speed to get both of us on sensors at the same time. It could happen, but not likely.”
Blondie looked at her. “Are we that worried about other ships?”
Baby Doll turned and looked directly at her. “Not every ship is a potential enemy, but damn few are potential friends. Most ships just want to go about their business with no trouble, but it is best to be safe. Pirate ships usually work alone. If we run into an enemy, he most likely will think that we are alone, and may decide to start something. Usually the unseen ship goes subspace and the spotted ship drags the enemy to the subspace ship and then, suddenly, the enemy ship doing the chasing finds out he has twice as much trouble as he thought he had.”
Blondie nodded. She was getting her first lesson in standard pirate operating procedures. This was real. Not war-games and not drills. She had grown tired of that in the Home Fleet. Now it was time to put her training to the test as an engineer getting the engines ready, a bridge watch stander, and a shipmate on a vessel going into combat. She smiled to herself. She was finally getting into the war and doing something important.
Chapter 8
The next two days were uneventful as Predator and Nemesis sped home. Blondie worked on her computer to gather all the available information on the four ships tasked to complete the mission. The three Clan destroyers would be easy compared to the lone odd ship out. The destroyers were newer and better built with up-to-date schematics and available tools. Although each of the three ships’ power plants had its own quirks, the work done on one ship would apply to the other two. Bandit was entirely different. She was an old Boris Rafton class corvette of the Odessa Republic. Blondie didn’t ask how the pirates got her, but that ship was complicating the mission. Late one workday, Blondie was having a beer in Baby Doll’s quarters when she remarked as such to her host.
Baby Doll nodded. “We know. Originally, we were going to go with just the three destroyers because of the identical power plants, and it would be easier to get three ships into Murmansk vice four ships. But we couldn’t make the mission work that way. There is a small window of opportunity for the attack before the base defenses would overwhelm us, and we have to have one ship totally dedicated to reducing the defenses for our way out. The remaining two ships just couldn’t do enough damage to the base itself to make it worthwhile. Then we added one of the Burgh corvettes thinking there would be some similarity in the engines to simplify your job. First, there really wasn’t the similarity and, second, the additional firepower of the one corvette wasn’t enough for the job. Adding two corvettes made getting five ships into the OrCon base that much harder and wouldn’t help matters in the Badlands while we were gone. Bandit is the most heavily armed corvette we got. She is almost equal to a Clan class in sheer firepower so we added her. When we come out of subspace at Murmansk, the Clan destroyers will conduct the attack while Bandit will be shooting at the defenses blocking our way out. She is not only heavily armed with missiles, but also with centerline guns, so will be really good at hitting slow, predictable targets such as missile batteries on the moons and artificial orbiting floaters that all bases use for defense. Bandit will actually lead the way out as we run like hell.”
Baby Doll looked at Blondie as if weighing to say any more, but then shrugged. “What the hell… I’ll talk to the Captain and get you fully briefed into the plan. It is still evolving. You should know right now we plan a dress rehearsal by hitting Rosstrappe so we will be gathering planetary and sensor noise from around there as well as getting it from the OrCon base. You will have to align the engines, blend them into the noise for Rosstrappe, and then readjust them for Murmansk.” Baby Doll smiled at her. “Better you than me.”
Blondie smiled back. “You’ll be helping every step of the way.”
The hit on a major Goth base was ambitious but not surprising. Once she found out she was going with the pirates, Blondie had read all the available intel reports on them and on the situation in the Badlands. She had also read all of Captain Mallory’s after action reports and lessons learned, all reports filed by the commander of the Gammatiga base, and those by the other surviving ships of Mallory’s squadron. She was as up to date as she could be on the Badlands situation. She knew the Charlie house story and everyone’s part in it. She was not surprised at all by the planned hit on Rosstrappe. Even though she knew Captain Ha
wkins for only a short time, she concluded this was well within his character.
Baby Doll nodded glumly. “Do you think we can do this hit on Murmansk and get out?”
It was the first time anyone had expressed a doubt about the mission, and Blondie was glad Baby Doll was comfortable enough with her to talk honestly.
She smiled. “I definitely think we can get in. But I don’t know the base defenses or our plan of attack, so I can’t say if we can get out.”
Baby Doll looked at her over her beer bottle. “I’ll get you a full brief tomorrow and make sure you’re in the loop on all updates. Lots of moving parts here, but we’ll pull it together. We always do.”
Blondie nodded. “I appreciate that. Aren’t you worried about Rosstrappe?”
Baby Doll smiled and shook her head. Her pink curls reflecting the light around her head. “The Goths aren’t at war and they never give us any credit for being good. I think the fact someone would actually hit their major base in the quadrant had stopped occurring to them decades ago. It will be a challenge but I would be really surprised if we don’t pull it off.”
With that, Baby Doll rose from her chair and got two more beers.
Chapter 9
Captain Shane Delacruz scanned the message one more time. He couldn’t decide if he was happy or not. He wanted revenge on the Goths and the OrCons, but he also wanted to be alive at the end to enjoy the feeling. This was an ambitious plan. Finally, he mentally shrugged. He had thrown in with the plan when Hawkins had outlined it, and nothing had changed since then to make him review the decision. He would be ready to go. Besides, sometime in the shipyard would do Vindictive well. He forwarded the message to Emily Legrand in Bandit.
Captain Emily Legrand leaned back in her desk chair in her day cabin. It had been a successful few weeks. Bandit, in company with Vindictive, had seized a large commercial freighter and taken most of the cargo before sending it on its way. They then rendezvoused with their own supply ship, Vampire, to transfer the cargo for resale on the countless planets that didn’t care where goods came from.
Payback Is a Given: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 2 Page 6