“We are getting heavy propulsion drag from anti-phase bands but we’re nowhere near a nebula. There’s no reason to encounter anti-phase bands in open space.”
Molon knew the reason. The knot in his stomach turned to stone and his eyes went wide.
“Pirates!” exclaimed Molon, Twitch, and Voide in unison, startling the rest of the bridge crew with the sudden simultaneous outburst.
“Winner-winner-chicken-dinner,” Hoot announced from the sensor station. “We have a three-way tie for the correct answer. Three Corsair class corvettes just dropped camo-screens. They are right on top of us. Picking up some type of energy field being emitted between them.”
“Yeah,” Molon answered. “That’d be an anti-phase net. Anti-phase emitters are older Lubanian tech, mostly abandoned due to their huge power drain and sensor interference. Some pirates still use it to hold and stabilize ships for boarding.”
“Molon,” Mel announced. “I am receiving an inbound hail.”
“Fantastic,” Molon replied. “Put it on screen so I can tell these imbeciles that their phase nets have left them blind to the PI cruiser bearing down on them. They chose a bad day to pick a fight.”
“Yes, Molon,” Mel replied and began setting up the communications link with the pirates.
“In the meantime, Dub,” Molon continued, “raise and harden our screens. The last thing we need is for some trigger-happy brigand to blow holes in us this close to the exit door.”
“Aye, Cap,” Dub replied.
“Voide, sound the alarm and prep for depressurization. We vent atmo in five minutes.”
“On it,” Voide answered.
Molon and the rest of the deck crew reached into the storage compartments below their stations and began to pull on the emergency vac-suits stored there. The warning klaxon and flashing lights announced the impending depressurization throughout the ship. Once Mel had sealed her vac-suit helmet into place, she moved the controls on her comm station and sent the incoming hail to the bridge screens.
As soon as the face from the incoming communiqué appeared on the viewscreen, any hope Molon had of reasoning or threatening their way out of this vanished. He heard the deep, reflexive breath come across the suit comms from Twitch and a simultaneous low growl from Voide. Molon closed his eyes and ground his teeth together hard enough to hurt. The odds against this were astronomical. Of all the pirates in the galaxy, why him?
“I thought I recognized my ship,” said the swarthy man whose pierced, studded, scarred, and bejeweled face filled the viewscreen. “Lobo, you pirate, how nice of you to finally return it to me.”
“Razdi Chadra,” Molon growled. “I wish I could say it was good to see you again, but I’m afraid I would choke to death on a lie that big.”
Chadra, who was not in any type of vac-suit, laughed aloud as he fiddled with a ribbon tied to one of the silvery rings piercing his right cheek.
“Aw, come on Lobo, don’t be that way. No need to hold a grudge. I don’t. I moved against you, you moved against me, it’s the pirate way. All that’s plasma through the vents.”
“Very gracious, Razdi,” Molon said. “But you don’t seem to understand the situation.”
“I’ll make you a deal, Lobo,” Chadra continued talking as if he had not heard Molon at all. “You hand over my ship and I’ll even give you your pick of one of these nice corvettes. Of course a corvette only holds a crew of six, but you pick the five friends you like the best and I promise not to kill the rest you have to leave behind, as long as they agree to keep doing their jobs under their new captain. I’m feeling so magnanimous that I may even let you keep your tail in the bargain.”
“As generous as that sounds, Chadra, I’m afraid I must decline. You see, if you would drop those sensor-blinding anti-phase nets, you’d see that in about fifteen minutes you will have to haggle with a Nova class PI cruiser over possession of Star Wolf. And given who commands that vessel, I doubt he’s in the mood to negotiate.”
The pirate captain let loose a raucous belly laugh, slapping the arms of his captain’s chair and blinking back tears of laughter.
“Lobo, you were such an accomplished liar, once upon a time. At least your lies to me were feasible. You expect me to believe an Imp cruiser is approaching a jump point to a system housing a Theocracy naval base? Why would they?”
Chadra’s face suddenly went somber and his tone changed from mocking to threatening. Molon knew the pirate king was subject to severe mood swings, and when they swung to the darker end of the spectrum, no good ever came of it.
“That you would resort to such a ridiculous fabrication,” Chadra continued, his dark eyes fixing intently on Molon, “shows me you have no plans to be reasonable.”
Chadra gave a nod to someone off-screen. Star Wolf began to shimmy slightly under the impact of weapons bombardment from the pirate ships.
“Hardened screens holding, captain,” Dub announced from the engineering station. “Negligible effect.”
“Oh ho!” Chadra announced, his eyes widening and a wicked grin returning to his face. “I see you’ve done an upgrade or two to my ship since you stole her from me. I don’t recall her having hardened screens.”
“Yeah, the galaxy is a dangerous place,” Molon answered.
“So I’ve heard,” replied Chadra. “But now I’m very puzzled, Lobo.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Molon answered. “You are usually so well informed.”
The snarl on Chadra’s face showed Molon his little jibe had hit home. Molon, Twitch, and, unbeknownst to all of them even Voide, had been working undercover on Chadra’s ship without him ever having figured it out.
“You see,” Chadra continued, clearly not wanting to acknowledge Molon’s taunt. “Your fixed forward pulse lasers are useless while you are trapped in the anti-phase net. They also affect targeting systems rendering your missiles harmless. But Star Wolf has perfectly functional and targetable phase cannon batteries. Those could fairly readily chase off three measly corvettes, yet there they sit, unpowered. So if you truly have a cruiser after you, and you have weapons to fight back with, why are you just sitting there like a fly in a spider’s web?”
Running the hardened shields was going to put them at enough risk of running out of fuel before Furi. If Molon was right, they might have enough to keep the shields up until Revenge was close enough to chase off the pirates. Unfortunately, if Russel was intent on destroying them this time, they would only have traded one executioner for another. But there was still that nagging doubt. Why had Russel not deployed shuttles or fighters? Had he known about Chadra? Were they working together?
Molon scrambled to think of a way to get them away from Chadra before Revenge drew in range, all without expending the last bit of their fuel reserves that would leave them without life-support systems before they reached Furi. Maybe he could taunt Chadra into a mistake.
“Maybe I just missed chatting with you, Razdi,” Molon said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You were always such pleasant company. Or maybe I just want to see the look on your face when that cruiser gets here and starts swatting your little gnat corvettes. You see, it’s Mark Russel running that cruiser. Ask yourself, Razdi, which of us do you think that glory hound will be more intent on capturing, a notorious pirate lord or some nameless Lubanian merc captain. You might want to get while the getting is good.”
Molon noted the pirate captain had still not depressurized or donned a vac-suit. On ships as small as corvettes, any hit that could breach the hull was likely to do catastrophic damage to the ship itself. That was why ships smaller than destroyers were rarely even built with depressurization capabilities. Apparently Chadra’s current vessel was no exception.
“Hmm,” Chadra replied, rubbing his chin. “That’s unlikely, my old friend. I’m no military expert, but I don’t think they put GalSec spooks in charge of navy ships. No, I’m thinking the only reason you haven’t powered your plasma cannons is that you have a fuel problem. Those cannons take a
good bit of energy to fire. No gas giants in this system, so I’m betting if I just hold you here long enough, with you burning energy on life-support and keeping those hardened screens up, you are going to power down very soon.”
“You are going to realize your mistake in about twelve minutes, Razdi. Seriously, if you have any visual capabilities in those crates not affected by your anti-phase emitters, look toward the Hatacks homeworld and you will see the ICR Revenge running full speed right at us.”
Chadra shook his head and began to thrum his fingers on the arm of his command chair as he considered Molon’s words. Molon could see a hint of doubt in his eyes. That hint of doubt told Molon Chadra likely wasn’t working with Russel, but that was not to say he wasn’t working for Russel. GalSec was very good at directing the actions of others like chess pieces; pawns who thought they were acting on their own. Having been a GalSec pawn at one time, Molon almost felt sorry for Chadra. Almost.
“Lobo,” Chadra said, breaking his nervous and contemplative silence. “I’m going to have to call your bluff. Looks like I will be getting my old ship back today after all, but making me wait is definitely going to cost you that tail.”
Razdi Chadra did not realized he was so right and so wrong all at the same time. He had rightly guessed Star Wolf’s fuel dilemma. Molon could keep the hardened screens up for several more minutes without jeopardizing their needed fuel to reach Furi, but if he fired up the phase cannons to break free from Chadra, they wouldn’t have enough to keep ship’s systems powered for the long voidspace journey. However, Chadra wasn’t getting his ship back today. In about ten more minutes, his corvettes would begin vaporizing under the fire of Revenge’s guns. Then it would be Star Wolf’s turn.
Twenty-Five – Called Bluffs
Molon took a deep breath as a warning alarm sounded from the sensor station.
“Revenge has just joined the dance,” announced Star Wolf’s sensor officer, Jerry “Hoot” Barundi. “She is now in weapons range.”
There was no more strategy. Molon’s brainstorming at this point was reduced to wishful thinking. Revenge had still not deployed shuttles, so if she chose to fire at the pirates first, and did it out here at maximum range, maybe they could still break free and beat the cruiser to the jump point. If Admiral Starling had deeper knowledge of pirate tactics, though, he might well have figured out Star Wolf was stationary because it was trapped in an anti-phase net. If he also knew that would make the corvettes blind at long range, he would wait until he was close enough to destroy the corvettes and still nab or destroy Star Wolf.
“Dub, you keep those engines ready to haul hull toward that jump point the minute that net drops.”
“If it drops before we are vaporized,” Voide said.
“Always sunshine and rainbows with you, ain’t it darlin’?” Dub chided.
“Twitch, keep that course locked and loaded,” Molon said, clenching his jaw to bite back a retort to Voide’s pessimism.
“Aye, sir.”
“Hoot,” Molon said, turning his attention back to the sensor officer.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Extrapolate a virtual model of what’s going on outside and put it on the display screen? I can’t stand sitting here blind.”
“One 3-D color-coded tactical holovid simulation with surround sound coming up,” Hoot replied.
A few moments later, a panorama of deep space appeared, with a digital rendering of the three pirate corvettes, Revenge closing in, and Star Wolf sitting dead in space like a bug caught between the ground and a boot. A shimmering disc, tantalizingly close, represented the location of the invisible voidspace entrance that would lead them to the Furi system and freedom.
The giant cruiser had drawn close enough to dwarf the four smaller ships in its path when suddenly a barrage of fiery fingers erupted from the plasma cannon arrays in Revenge’s forward firing arc, pulverizing one of the corvettes and dismantling the anti-phase net. The other two corvettes quickly peeled off toward the voidspace entrance as Star Wolf’s own engines leapt to life.
“Incoming hail, Molon,” Mel announced.
So who was calling—Mark Russel to gloat or Razdi Chadra to curse?
“On screen, Mel.”
Chadra’s face filled the front wall of the bridge, but it wasn’t smirking or smug anymore.
“Guess you were telling the truth after all, Lobo. Here’s hoping Russel hates you more than he hates me. We’ll meet again, and I will have my ship back.”
The signal ended as the remaining two speedy corvettes began evasive maneuvers as they punched in maximum thrust toward the voidspace entrance point. Furi would be no haven for pirates, but Molon knew Chadra well enough to know he would have more than a few fake transponder beacons aboard ready to pretend like he belonged there.
“Sorry, cap,” Dub said as the familiar shimmy from overstrained engines shook the ship. “We’re caught.”
Starling was no fool. He had waited to fire on the pirates until he had Star Wolf in tractor beam range. While Molon was grateful Russel hadn’t simply destroyed Star Wolf, now they were back in the hands of the Provisional Imperium, and worse yet, the hands of GalSec.
“Shut down propulsion and the screens, Dub. Save whatever fuel we have left.”
“You got it, Cap.”
“Déjà vu,” Twitch quipped.
“Yeah,” Molon said, biting back a laugh. “We’ve seen this holovid before, haven’t we? Two will get you ten that Hornet’s Nest is about to make an appearance and spring us any minute now.”
“No bet,” Twitch replied. “Although even if they did show up, Admiral Starling isn’t going to let himself get sucker-punched again. We’re cooked this time.”
“I don’t know,” Molon replied, trying to muster something hopeful to say. “Russel has to know we had nothing to do with last time. Maybe Voide can still salvage things with him.”
“Don’t count on it,” Voide replied. “Mark was fishing for me to sell you guys out to save myself when the Brothers showed up. Whatever negotiating opportunities there were disappeared when we did. No matter. I’ve always preferred fighting to talking anyway. More entertaining.”
Voide cracked her knuckles and then stretched her neck from side to side as if warming up for a sparring match. Molon admired her spirit, but even if every person on their crew were as skilled in combat as Voide was, they were so hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by Revenge that it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Molon, I have an incoming hail from Revenge,” Mel announced.
“Of course you do,” Molon said with a sigh. “Time to face the music. On screen.”
Mark Russel’s face filled the viewscreen, with Senior Special Interrogator Simmons standing stiffly in the background. Mark exuded what looked to be a forced and condescending smile.
“Captain Hawkins, Yasu,” Russel said, briefly turning his gaze to address Voide before returning his attention to Molon. “Since our earlier discussions were interrupted, I have had a chance to examine Star Wolf’s logs in great detail. Here’s how this is going to work, captain.”
“I’m listening,” Molon said, bracing for what was doubtless to be a set of ridiculous demands.
“We have your ship monitored through sensors scanning every square inch. Anyone so much as goes near a weapons control room or even a small arms locker, I destroy your ship. You fail to comply completely with what I am about to tell you, I destroy your ship. If another ship, even one that has nothing to do with you, drops out of voidspace anywhere near us—
“You’ll destroy my ship. I get it. What do you want, Mark?”
“You will dock with Revenge. You and your senior officers, including Dr. John Salzmann, will board Revenge unarmed and unarmored. Everyone else on board has ten minutes to return to their quarters and remain there. We see anyone moving anywhere other than toward crew quarters—
“You’ve made that abundantly clear, Mark,” Molon said, taking at least a little satisfaction at cutting
that smug prig off in mid-sentence. “But what does this have to do with my Chief Medical Officer? He’s not a command officer, so any decision we need to reach will not benefit from his input.”
“Molon,” Russel answered as his face changed into a mix of condescension and frustration. “Do you think my promotion came with a lobotomy?”
“GalSec does things differently,” Molon quipped. “Anything is possible I suppose.”
“We all know this has everything to do with Dr. Salzmann,” Russel continued, ignoring Molon’s taunt. “Why, he may be the most valuable person in the galaxy right now. So, hurry along before my friend Simmons takes over. I don’t think that would end pleasantly for anyone…except Simmons.”
*****
John lagged a couple of steps behind his crewmates, who in turn were following the single, unarmed crewman sent by Admiral Starling to guide them to the meeting room. The man was dressed in the military garb of the Provisional Imperium, a typical Empire Navy crewman utterly unspectacular in every way. His rank of Spaceman Second Class showed that little consideration was being given to Star Wolf’s command officers whom he was escorting. Russel had not even sent a proper honor guard, just a lowly messenger.
The man seemed unconcerned about any hostility toward him, either because he was too dim to feel threatened or because Starling had assured the man that there would be no trouble from the command crew while Star Wolf sat in the shadow of Revenge’s massive firepower.
John couldn’t help but admire the way Molon led the away team with a firm determination in his step. While the instructions had been given that they were all to arrive unarmed, Molon couldn’t exactly leave his Lubanian physiology behind. He had natural weaponry wherever he went, in the form of teeth and claws. However, John had been reading up on Lubanians, and knew those were weapons of last resort and would be no more dignified for a Lubanian to employ than if a human were to dive into a fight biting and scratching.
John shook his head as he noted how Voide swaggered, fists clenched, as though she were marching to battle. Demands that the command crew be unarmed notwithstanding, John recognized Voide’s stealth suit and the control armband she was wearing. To the casual observer, she was complying with orders, but he suspected that Voide might be bringing more than advertised to this party.
Star Wolf (Shattered Galaxy) Page 36