The Queen's Hammer

by Sean Benjamin

  “We paid a heavy price but learned a lot from that raid. I learned to plan better, not focus on my side but on the enemy. One of the advantages in our first actions was that they didn’t expect us nor take us seriously. I got comfortable in assuming it would always be that way. I didn’t give them credit for a learning curve. Raferty also felt a bit guilty about that fight. Three dead at the battle, three wounded, one of them later died, and three captured, and he didn’t get a scratch even though he had been in the middle of it all. He also felt guilty he allowed himself to be talked into the raid. Before that raid, he had been in charge with our consent. After that, he never allowed voting to happen again. He listens to others, changes plans as needed, but always makes the final decision as to what is going to be done and when. In short, he became a commander that night.

  “Another thing we learned was we needed to stay off Bolindale. We had thought we were dealing mortal blows to the mining company and the Goths. In reality, their losses due to us were probably considered the price of doing business. I doubt our raids were even reported to anyone off planet. We needed to broaden our battlefield, both to hit better targets and to have more places to hide. Bolindale was too confining in both cases. We wanted the Strasberg people and Goths to feel some pain. Couldn’t be done on one planet. We got off Bolindale permanently. The seven of us survivors stuck together. We took jobs, stole stuff from the Goths, and kept moving as we learned different skills, both legal ones and illegal ones. We changed our names. So began the evolution from green kids to Pirate Flotilla One.

  “We have had the money for many years to do my face, but I’m in no hurry. I’ll get around to it sooner or later. Right now, it reminds me to be better than I was when planning that refinery attack. Plan better. Consider all the options. Have the guts to say yes despite the danger. Have the guts to say no if the risks do not equal the rewards. Raferty became a commander that night. I became an operations officer.”

  She stopped now and continued to look at the sky as the Duke watched her. She showed no emotion. It was almost as if she was relating a story about other people. In a certain sense, she was. He was silent. Tactical looked at him and smiled. “The sky is quite beautiful today.” He glanced up briefly and then back at her. “Yes. Yes, it is.” He reached for the wine bottle and refilled each glass.

  Chapter 9

  Captain Llewellyn Terrant exited her shuttle as soon as Vindictive’s airlock pressurized. She didn’t like coming to the squadron flagship, especially alone. It felt a little like being in enemy territory. She knew that was foolish but she couldn’t help it. She could hardly refuse an invitation to Vindictive even if she thought there was some insidious reason behind the request. After receiving the invitation, she reviewed all her activities to see if there was a possibility of a leak there. She came up with nothing but did the review umpteen more times. She thought she was on firm ground. She also thought many other people had probably come to the same conclusion just before they were shoved out an airlock.

  She had kept her crew in line and clandestine comm to a minimum since the Battle of the Electra system. She wanted the new engines and resupply and was doing everything to help that along. She was not complaining in command meetings nor trying to get special privileges for her ship and crew. In fact, her crew had been on liberty on nearby planets with no incidences. Duty section three was due back tomorrow. Captain Terrant was quite happy with the current situation. Still, she reviewed all of her ship’s activities once again as she was escorted by Harper Lutz, Vindictive’s Operations Officer, to the Captain’s day cabin. At the hatch, he knocked and then opened the hatch and stepped back.

  Terrant stepped into the day cabin but stopped short once she scanned the compartment. At the table sat Captains Shane Delacruz, Killian O’Hare, and Raferty Hawkins. Sitting on the couch along the far bulkhead was Baby Doll. Terrant heard the hatch shut tight behind her and could feel Lutz’s presence at her back. She flinched briefly. This had all the atmosphere of a board of inquiry. Or worse.

  Shane motioned to an empty chair closest to the entry. It was at end of table facing all the occupants. Very much like a board of inquiry. Or worse. Terrant put on a brave face and smiled at all the other captains as she took the seat. None smiled back.

  Shane looked down the table at her from the other end. He was strictly business. “I have a piece of imagery to show you, and then we would like your input on it, Captain.”

  “Of course, Senior Captain.” Terrant could be formal too as she addressed him with the rank reserved for the squadron commander.

  Delacruz hit a couple of keys on a computer board. A series of images formed over the table. They showed two battlecruisers in the foreground with five other ships in the background. The battlecruisers were marked with a large painted flag with a blue background and a number of green stars forming a circle on that background.

  Shane stared under the floating images at Terrant. “You recognize them, of course.”

  Terrant nodded. “Star class battlecruisers of the Commonwealth of Nations from our home planet of Rialta.” She spoke with authority as she felt she was on safe ground now. This meeting was not about her.

  Shane nodded in agreement. “True enough but the surprising thing was where the images were taken.” He paused and then added. “In orbit over Last Chance on the planet Absolution on the edge of the Badlands. The two big boys are part of a fourteen-ship squadron that moved into the Badlands after a brief time in orbit there. They are now cruising around the quadrant.” Delacruz leaned back now and eyed her. “Any thoughts on why a Commonwealth squadron would come all this way to cruise the Badlands.”

  Terrant scanned the other occupants of the compartment as she pondered an answer. Nobody said a word in the quiet interlude, but all were staring at Terrant and not bothering to hide the fact. Terrant went with the first obvious answer. “They might be after me and my ship.”

  A few seconds of silence, then Delacruz asked, “Any particular reason why you think that might be true?”

  Terrant shrugged slightly. “I was an admiral. Also, I might be one of the highest-ranking officers still at large. As you know, the winners of the civil war accused all our leaders of war crimes so have been actively searching for them. I was in that group so, maybe, it is my turn for special attention.”

  Terrant was comfortable with that answer. It was logical and very possibly true. She had delivered it with conviction. As she scanned her companions again, she realized that theory was not convincing them. She suddenly had the sinking feeling they knew much more than they were letting on.

  “Who took the images?” she asked as she tried to gauge their knowledge.

  “A freighter in orbit at Last Chance.” Hawkins spoke for the first time. He followed it up with a question. “If the winners are going to charge you with a war crime, would it have any basis in fact?”

  “Yes, we all did some things we are not proud of, but so did they. This is winners punishing losers and nothing more.”

  Hawkins nodded at the answer and switched subjects. “Got to wonder about the timing. Did you do anything recently before coming to the Badlands that might attract their attention at this time and make them come all the way from Rialta for you?”

  Terrant shook her head. “No contact with the Commonwealth since the war ended. Been doing my best to keep a low profile. I have no idea why they are here at this time unless they just got some fresh intel on me or my ship and that brought them to the Badlands.”

  Her reply had the ring of truth, but it was an incomplete truth. Unknown to Terrant, all the others in the compartment knew the whole truth and had discussed it before her arrival. The pirate leaders agreed the gathering of Marbellan warships responding to Terrant’s call for a rendezvous was the driving factor for bringing the Commonwealth flotilla to the Badlands. It was far more likely the Commonwealth intelligence learned about multiple ship movements going in the same direction than about the movements of a single individual or a
single ship.

  Rafe nodded again while giving away nothing. “Flot 1 is still going home in two weeks. If you decide you don’t want to return to the Badlands that is understandable. We will still complete repairs on Cottonmouth and resupply you. After that is done, you can depart for other destinations with no problem if you desire.”

  Terrant shook her head. “We are part of Pirate Flotilla One. We go where Flot 1 goes.”

  Hawkins nodded. “That’s fine. If they are looking for you, I suspect I will get to talk to that Commonwealth squadron sometime soon after our return home. If they have a different version of events, that would force me to sort out the truth.” He stared at Terrant.

  Terrant nodded. “Of course.” She sounded more confident than she actually was. It was possible that during any conversation between Hawkins and the Commonwealth squadron commander, it would be revealed the Commonwealth was chasing several renegade Marbellan ships, and these ships had been tracked to the Badlands. If Hawkins believed that claim, he could easily come to the conclusion that these vessels, if in the Badlands, were answering a rallying call from former Admiral Llewelyn Terrant. If he came to that conclusion, Terrant would have a very serious problem.

  Terrant scanned all the other faces at the table for any sign of disbelief or threat. There was nothing obvious, but the pirates had been planning this game for a long time, so Terrant did not take that as an indication that she was safe. She did notice that Killian O’Hare had said nothing up to now. In fact, O’Hare did not move at all. She also didn’t take her eyes off Terrant. A cobra poised to strike wished it had that lethal look. O’Hare had almost infinite patience while waiting for the right moment to attack. Terrant knew if Hawkins came to the conclusion that Terrant had to go, there was no doubt as to who would get that mission.

  Terrant was suddenly tired. She wished she had been upfront from the beginning, but she had had no way of predicting how all this would go. She could never sell out Flot 1 or Raferty Hawkins now. Too much has been invested in Flot 1’s success by her ship and her crew. The crew liked being in this organization. Selling the pirates to the Goths for money was no longer a viable option. The next best plan was to form the Marbellan ships into a squadron within Pirate Flotilla One, but she couldn’t see a way to do that without it being obvious she had been lying the whole time. She didn’t want to continue the lie but couldn’t tell the truth.

  Delacruz smiled at Terrant. “Thanks for coming over. This Commonwealth squadron is an unexpected challenge, but we’ll get through it. Any input from you on this would be appreciated.”

  Terrant knew she was being dismissed and was happy to depart. She nodded to all of them as she rose from her seat. She moved out the hatch and down the corridor with Lutz behind her. She knew there was more going on here than was obvious, but there was little she could do about it. Running away was not an option. Her crew liked being part of a winning team and, truth be told, so did she. She wished she had been honest from the start, but that was irrelevant now. She had to look to the future. She entered the airlock to her shuttle and departed. Lutz returned to the briefing room.

  “She’s gone,” he reported as Shane motioned him to a seat. Lutz sat down as Hawkins turned to Delacruz.

  “She’ll have to do something in response to the Commonwealth squadron,” he said. “You need to think about what you want to do. Her ships are your countrymen. I’m not looking for a fight with her, but we can’t let Terrant run around with her own agenda.”

  Shane nodded. “I’ll give it some thought and get back to you. She is my problem, and I will take care of it. Whatever it takes, I will do it.”

  Hawkins nodded. “Good enough.” He looked around the table. “On to other topics. I see a number of challenges once we get back home. We will get back about two standard weeks before the Royal Navy squadron shows up. Every ship will be going to their house during that time. After the Zekes show up, we will be getting back into action.”

  He took a breath and laid out his vision of upcoming operations. “I see the following challenges that we will take on. First is the Commonwealth squadron. Then the Sunrise Grange. Investigating the relationship between Baron Ernst Hochstadt and his cousin Prince Joseph. Integrating ops with the Zekes squadron and establishing a base for both squadrons to use. In addition to these major items, we still have to destroy the Brie light cruiser Fusilier. And we have to do all this while avoiding getting killed by the Goths.” He smiled at the group. “Here’s how we are going to do it.”

  He outlined his guidance and plans in ten minutes. The next twenty minutes were spent answering questions and arguing with Killian O’Hare. After that, Hawkins turned to look at Baby Doll. “We have to gather a lot of intel to support all these missions. You need to get messages out to everyone and their dog so we can get some replies back soonest.”

  “Already on it,” she replied. “Have already sent out messages to get more information on the Commonwealth squadron and the situation back home. I’m tasking most of our assets, so we should start getting a bunch of replies before we leave here.”

  “We’ll have more requirements once we complete planning with the Zeke squadron coming to the Badlands.”

  Baby Doll nodded in agreement. “No problem.”

  Rafe glanced at his watch and then Baby Doll. “Need to get back to Predator. The liberty parties are about to swap out.”

  Chapter 10

  Raferty, Baby Doll, and Logan stood at the airlock greeting crewmembers returning from their leave. They would also say good bye to the last group going out for ten days of leave. The captain being there to say goodbye was an unspoken reminder to be on your best behavior and to remember to come back. There had been no liberty incidences yet, and everyone wanted that record to be extended.

  The large shuttle attached to the airlock and opened up. Several people came out in a line. Most were smiling and happy after some well-earned time off. They nodded at the Captain as they passed. Then Eli and Preacher came onboard. Both looked half hungover and half-drunk but all happy.

  Eli spied Baby Doll and stepped out of line to talk to her. Preacher followed him and hovered in the background. Eli continued the conversation they had had when he had departed. “She may have had home-field advantage, but I fought it to a draw!”

  Hawkins had no idea about the topic, but Logan leaned close to him with the information. “He was drinking sake with Ozzie from Nemesis.”

  Hawkins kept his voice low. “First I’ve heard of those two. Are they an item?”

  His voice was not low enough. Eli heard him. He assumed the position of attention, more or less. “We are more than an item, Cap’ain. We are married now.”

  That comment got everyone’s attention. Even some people passing behind the group stopped and took an interest. Nobody said a word. The three people in the greeting party stared at Eli and then all simultaneously shifted their gaze to Preacher. He was in better shape than Eli. He shrugged and nodded. “I tried to stop it but no luck.”

  Eli looked at Preacher, “At first he was killing all the joy in the event until he just went with it.” Eli slugged him in the shoulder. “My best man.”

  Rafe wearily shook his head as he said, “Let’s see if I got this straight. A drinking contest lead to marriage?”

  “Yup, Cap’ain.” Eli was quite proud of the fact. “Nori and I have always gotten along. She’s a trooper and a great liberty buddy. I don’t know why, but this time it was even better. We were sitting across from each other on big cushions at a low table. We were pounding down the sake and matching drink for drink. We got drunker and drunker. Finally, we couldn’t stay upright anymore. We both fell off our cushions at the same time, and that is when we knew we were right for each other. We just started laughing while lying on the floor. We knew it was destined to be.”

  Raferty turned to look at Baby Doll. She had seen Eli and Preacher depart on leave and may have more insight. She took it as an invitation to speak about anything on her mind. �
�Hey, I have been in some drinking games, but never got married because of them.” She paused and added. “Came close a few times though.”

  Rafe frowned at her. “That doesn’t help.”

  “Not trying to help,” Baby Doll replied with an elfin smile. She was enjoying this way too much.

  Logan and Hawkins looked at each other, and then both of them looked down at the deck in thought. Rafe briefly wondered how O’Hare would take this. These two newlyweds were the best helmsmen on their respective ships. They filled that role whenever their ships went into combat. One of the ships was going to lose a valuable crewmember. Rafe didn’t have to wonder about O’Hare’s reaction if Nemesis was on the wrong end of this deal. He also suspected she didn’t want to be on the winning end either. Two combat helmsmen were just as bad as no combat helmsman. He addressed the immediate future. “Who wants to transfer to the other’s ship?”

  Eli looked surprised at the question. “Nobody wants to transfer, Cap’ain. We’re good to go.”

  It was now the turn of the three sober people to look surprised. Logan spoke first. “Nobody wants to move to the other’s ship? Is this some kind of sham marriage?”

  “Not at all.” Eli was slightly offended. “We did it legal and proper. We consecrated our marriage and everything.”

  Everyone knew the word was wrong, but they still got the point. Well, almost everyone knew the word was wrong. “You could hear them consecrating two hotel rooms away.” Preacher volunteered.

  Baby Doll went with the spirit of the moment. “Consecrating is fun, ain’t it?”

  “Sure is.” Eli agreed as he turned to her. “You shoulda seen-.”