Although Captain Andrews’ tone was firm and measured, tempered with civility, his brow was knit with amused dismay. “Mr. Farnsworth, this does not concern you. If I were a pirate, I would prefer your craft to the one I pursue, would I not? Now please stand down.”
Stan turned and spoke as if to someone off-screen. “Captain, it seems this man will not listen to reason. Close communications.” With that the screen went black. DarkStar shot past the two pursuit ships and turned to follow them.
“Well . . . that was different,” Lilia said.
“Hmm, that’s an understatement.” Stan hunched over his screen to make sense of what he saw. “Not pirates, then what’s their game?”
“What says they’re not pirates, Stan? Even if it’s not apparent, to them that little yacht carries something far more valuable than Prize.”
Stan drew a firm hand down his face. Trying to understand this confusing mess wasn’t going to be easy. “Our first instinct was to take the side of the smaller craft. Do you think we may have been wrong in that?”
Deep in thought, Lilia didn’t reply.
“Let’s try something else.” Stan turned back to his console. “DarkStar, open a channel to the yacht.”
The screen came to life. On it, with a face thick with sweat, a trembling, pudgy, but well-dressed man screamed into the monitor. “Help me! They’re going to kill me!”
Stan scowled. “My good man, what do these brigands want with you?”
“What? Are you deaf?” he shouted. “They want to kill me.”
“Yes, yes,” Stan said, still playing the part of an unruffled aristocrat, “but why do they want to kill you?”
“I am the Governor of Praxis, and they are instigating a coup.” His eyes darted as if frantic for an idea. “Help me elude them, and I’ll pay you 25 denalli.”
“Humph! More money indeed.” Stan said. “I suppose to a few that pittance would seem like a small fortune. But I find your presumption that I lack for money insulting.” He turned away. “Close the connection.”
“Something’s not right,” Lilia said. “I can’t say why, but I don’t trust that man.”
Stan glanced at her. “Andrews seems no better. What say we not involve ourselves?”
DarkStar sounded an alarm. “Warning, danger! Ambush ahead: two Galleasses, one Xebec, and three Corsairs, all lying in wait.”
Lilia swiveled her chair to Stan. “Now what?”
Before Stan could think, DarkStar answered Lilia. “The yacht’s pilot knows the other ships are there, ma’am. The yacht turned toward them as if this was his original and intended course heading.”
“Looks like a side has been chosen for us,” Stan said. “DarkStar, raise Val Hilliard.”
Andrews appeared on the screen. “I’m rather busy, Mr. Farnsworth. What do you want?”
“Captain, it’s a trap.” Stan said with an urgency that surprised even himself. “In the nebula dead ahead are two Galleasses.”
Andrews’ eyes flared in surprise. “How do you know that, Farnsworth?”
“Long-range scanners, sir. You should see them on yours any second now.”
Capt. Andrews looked away to study something off screen, nodded to someone, then turned back to Farnsworth.
“All right, ship’s signatures are detected. But how do you know exactly what they are, unless you, sir, are a party to them?”
“My good man, I assure you, my scanners are the latest our technology has to offer. Now tell me truthfully, what’s that yacht to you?”
Andrews’ square jaw tensed visibly. “I have little reason to trust you, Farnsworth.”
Stan threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine, take ’em on by yourselves. This isn’t my fight after all, Andrews. Once you’re enslaved and your ships are picked clean by space vultures ask yourself if, against those ships, you could’ve used another gun. If nothing else, sir, Prize could’ve served as bait.”
“Bait, huh? Bait for whom: them or me?” Hesitant, Andrews leaned forward as if to dissect Farnsworth’s true intentions. “Okay, Farnsworth, it seems I have little choice.”
“That would seem to be the case, Capt. Andrews. What’s going on?”
Gathering his thoughts, Andrews leaned back. “Governor Chact is aboard that yacht. He taxed us well beyond his government’s needs, then embezzled the money and ran. Without his return, Praxis is bankrupt. Our aim, Capt. Boyd of Star Sword and I, is to restore what he took and bring him to justice.”
In affirmation, Stan nodded. “Understood, Captain. After you reclaim him, head home with all due speed. You’ll have two Galleasses and a Xebec hot on your tail.”
Andrews’ expression changed to one of startled puzzlement. “What—”
Stan closed the channel and turned to Lilia. “Shall we, Luv?” he said with a voice dripping with arrogance.
“Let’s,” she replied as snooty as he. Increasing speed, she passed both ships to catch the small yacht.
Full throttle, six ships shot from the nebula to ambush Val Hilliard, Star Sword, and Prize.
Stan locked a gun onto the yacht and fired. Instantly, the little ship lost all power and dropped to sub-light speed. As Prize flew passed it, Stan aimed at the lead Corsair and fired all guns at once, then loaded class three rockets.
Andrews’ Brigantine scooped up the yacht and turned back toward Praxis. Star Sword followed Prize to assist.
The two Galleasses and Xebec ran after Andrews’ ship, and as they passed Prize, Stan fired a spread of rockets at each ship, to severely damage their shields. Star Sword fired all guns at the Xebec to wreck its shields further, and then turned hard and fired again as it passed.
The Galleasses raced on ahead as the crippled Xebec dropped to sub light.
Unable to catch the Galleasses, Star Sword, turned to the other Corsairs.
Prize had one smoking, which limped away. The other two Corsairs pounded Prize hard before Star Sword reached them to fire a torrent of plasma cannon. This drew the enemy ships away from Prize, but otherwise did little damage.
Stan launched a swell of rockets to take out one Corsair’s sensor array and shields.
It moved off.
The remaining pirate traded hits with the smaller Star Sword until both began to jet smoke.
Lilia brought Prize closer. With rockets and cannon, Stan hammered the pirate until it broke off its attack, but not in time; Star Sword was badly hurt.
Stan opened communications.
In a smoke filled bridge, slumped in Star Sword’s command chair, a uniformed woman motioned with a feeble hand. “Go. Help Andrews. His Brigantine doesn’t have a chance against those Galleasses.” She coughed from the smoke.
“Warning!” DarkStar said.
The blip on the scanner troubled Lilia. “I see it.” Although wounded, the returning Xebec still posed a huge problem.
“First things first, Captain Boyd. We’ve got company coming, and our sensors indicate your ship can’t hold together much longer. Launch all of your escape pods ASAP, and we’ll return for them after we’ve taken care of this pressing business.”
“Roger, Prize,” said Boyd before the screen went black. Within minutes, escape pods jettisoned from Star Sword to rocket away to safety.
Lilia eased Prize away to engage the Slip-band drive, but the ship shuddered and failed to jump to light speed.
“Warning. Slipdrive is offline. Sub-light thrusters are functioning at ninety percent.”
“DarkStar, what can you give me? We need speed, and we need it now.”
“Effecting repairs, Captain Slone. One moment please.” DarkStar picked up speed, but was sluggish and struggled in the effort.
Ahead, the Xebec accelerated toward them, but hadn’t yet jumped to lightspeed. Stan ordered DarkStar to ready all weapons, and then, in warning, turned to his partner. “Lilia, Xebecs are a pirate’s dream ship—”
“It is a heavily armed, extremely fast predator ship,” Lilia cut him off, “that once having locked onto it
s prey can scarcely be shaken. Xebecs have been known to ring the death knell for ships as large as Confederate Destroyers, and, even while wounded, they are quite formidable. This one no doubt returns to focus on Star Sword.” Keeping her eyes on the console she mechanically rattled off the information without skipping a beat.
Stan’s eyebrows practically touched his hairline. “Okaaay, this genetic memory thing still takes some getting used too.”
Lilia looked his way. “It’s realistic to believe that a man out for revenge captains this Xebec. Star Sword’s escape pods are at risk. If we can’t severely disable the renegade, we’ll have to destroy it.”
Hearing the note of regret in her voice, Stan saw distress and sorrow mingled with resolve written in Lilia’s face.
“There’s no other way, Captain.”
“No, there isn’t.”
Stan studied the events on his screen. “DarkStar, get that engine on line NOW.”
“Aye, sir. One moment please.”
“You have a plan, Lilia?”
“One’s formulating.”
“I’ve got nothing, girl. We better—”
“Got it!” she snapped. All business now, her actions were decisive and steady. “Yeah. Ready the weapons.” But when she punched in the command to create a Sensory Shadow-ship, nothing happened.
“Sorry, Captain Slone,” DarkStar said. “That feature is currently offline.”
As DarkStar’s auto-mend systems continued with repairs, the ship slowly picked up speed.
The Xebec, still a great distance from them, picked up momentum as well, but still hadn’t made the jump to light. The first ship to do so would hold the advantage over the other. Against the Xebec’s numerous guns, speed would be DarkStar’s only plus.
Stan studied the power indicators and made a mental note of the Xebec’s position. “DarkStar, give me rockets, and load the torpedo chambers.”
“Aye, sir.”
Lilia seemed stressed. “DarkStar, are you close to finishing repairs? We have a need for speed, girl. Give us something, will ya?”
In that instant, the ship lurched and jumped to light speed.
Lilia, at the helm, quickly formed a Shadow-ship, but got nothing but a red, flashing, offline light for her troubles. The damaged Slipband drive, even when pressed, gave her little better than light speed.
“Come on, girl,” Lilia said. “Give me one fold, one lousy little fold, please.”
Suddenly the ship jumped one-fold to double their velocity.
“Yes! Atta girl!” Lilia patted her console in appreciation, then turned to Stan. “You’ve got to hit the Xebec before it hits us, Stan. DarkStar can’t take much more pounding.”
Hitting the Xebec without killing it could spell certain doom. Because of DarkStar’s alterations, Lilia was as aware of the danger as he.
As they went in, Lilia had to swing DarkStar wildly to evade the Xebec’s guns and get in close enough to make each of her own shots count. Even so, Stan still had to lock on to vital areas just to hurt the big, heavily armored ship. He could run out everything he had along the Xebec’s hindquarter and, if not careful, do little more than make it mad.
Stan glared and growled without saying a word. He had faced one of these beasts before but hadn’t fared as well as he wanted. In his previous encounter, the Xebec’s plating, a celamic-tricoen alloy, exceptional in its ability to transfer zithion energy, had spread the charge over a larger area to lessen the blow. The result; Stan and his men had barely escaped with their lives.
Stan growled again. “This time around, let’s see how well you handle rockets, punk.”
Time was critical, and the Xebec was the linchpin. Andrews’ ship would be lost to the Galleasses if too much time was spent on the Xebec. But if hurrying caused Stan to fail in disabling the beast, those in Boyd’s life pods would be at risk of enslavement.
The huge Xebec began to lay down heavy fire as DarkStar headed in. As she shot past it, one errant shot caught her flank to spin DarkStar out of control. Lilia fought to regain command as DarkStar swung around hard, only to come to rest behind the Xebec.
As the huge ship started its turn to bring its guns to bear, Stan spotted its one weakness—every ship had one—a choice target called the sweet spot. For the Xebec, this Xebec, it was a vent below and behind its bridge. Stan fired off three rockets in succession, and the bright explosion, near enough to shake DarkStar, downed the shield and hit the vent.
Before the Xebec could retaliate, Stan fired another round, which tore away the Xebec’s conning tower in a blaze of twisted metal.
“Now let’s see how well you pilot that bucket of bolts without a bridge, buddy boy.”
Lilia pulled hard about and headed for Andrews’ ship. “Good shooting, Stan. One down. Now for the Galleasses. DarkStar, report!”
“I have minor damage throughout my frame and though drive output is down twenty-five percent, I am effecting repairs. The life pods are now safely away from the Star Sword.”
“Give me tactical,” Lilia said.
The 3-D hologram came up to show that the Galleasses had gained on Andrews’ ship. DarkStar was far behind. “How long before the pirates catch Val Hilliard?”
“15 minutes.” DarkStar said.
“And what’s our ETA?”
“At present, 22 minutes, Captain Slone.”
“Calculate Val Hilliard’s least survival time.”
“Roger, Captain. Three minutes, if the two Galleasses use full fire power.”
“We’re going to be too late.”
Stan swung around to face her. “No, we’re not. We’ve got more time than that. The pirates want to get paid, and their paycheck is aboard Val Hilliard.”
“Roger that, Stan. Level-A Stealth, please, so they don’t detect our approach.”
“Negative, Captain. We do want them to see us. We need to draw fire away from Val Hilliard to give him breathing room.”
Uneasy, Lilia shifted in her seat. Her dependence on Stealth was understandable, but this wasn’t the time to use it.
“Lilia, I know DarkStar can’t take many more blows, but if we’re to give Andrews a fighting chance, we must separate those ships. Stealth mode uses too much energy, which only leaves me with rockets. If those Galleasses have ARCMs, then rockets will be useless.”
A long sigh spoke of Lilia’s reluctance. “All right. If we’re going in fully visible, Stan, we’ll need to do some fancy flying. Want to take the helm?”
“If you can handle the guns, sure.”
At Lilia’s nod Stan tabbed his console to transfer the gunnery display to her control and the helm to his.
As they neared the Galleasses sensor range, difficult decisions made Lilia grip her console hard. “Stan, Prize, at 180 feet, will hardly be seen as much of a threat. Only half the size of a Corsair and a third the size of a mammoth Galleass . . . well . . .”
“I see. If both ships ignore us and focus their guns on Andrews, they could convince him to give up his precious cargo.”
“That won’t do at all,” Lilia said. “Gov. Chact is all that’s keeping them alive. To give him up would mean enslavement . . . or death . . . for the crew of Val Hilliard.”
Stan stared at his scanner for a second. Then a sly grin curled his lips. “Since they can’t see us at this distance, DarkStar, cloak yourself with the Xebec’s energy readings; Level-B Stealth, please. And make this bridge match the Xebec’s when com-lines are open.”
“Roger, Captain Archer.”
Lilia shot a startled scowl at Stan. “I don’t see where you’re going with this.”
“While you’re at it, DarkStar, turn Lilia into Capt. Boyd’s double.”
“What? Uh, uh. No way.” Lilia said.
“You can pull this off. I just hope Andrews doesn’t blow your cover.”
“Well, I’ll try, but you better have a plan B.” Lilia took a deep breath, and closed her eyes to mentally get into character. “Okay DarkStar, when we’re in Val Hilli
ard’s sensor range, open a com-line. And I do mean wide open so the pirates and all can listen.”
“Roger, Captain Slone. Coming into sensor range in T-minus 30 seconds.” The next moment, DarkStar hailed Val Hilliard and the screen lit up with the image of Capt. Andrews.
Andrews’ calm expression covered a mix of hope, relief, and frustration, but didn’t hide the surprise in his voice. “Captain Boyd, you’ve captured the Xebec?”
“Roger, Cap. I’m sorry for the delay, but the Xebec’s crew did resist her capture.”
Andrews thought quickly, pulled his watch from his pocket, glanced at it, and raised an eyebrow toward the image of Boyd.
“Yes, sir,” she said as though reading his mind, “I got cocky and allowed them to put up a fight. But sir, I shall not be so lax with these Galleasses. Or did you wish to take these two apart yourself?”
Andrews glanced again at his pocket watch, and then looked at her sternly. “I have enough notches on my belt, Captain Boyd. This is your chance to build your reputation, so have at them. There are only two, so I’ll give you five minutes to take them down. And Captain . . .”
“Yes, sir?”
“. . . prisoners, please. Dead men make lousy slaves.”
Lilia let her lips form a sinister grin. “Aye, Captain Andrews. Boyd out.” With that, the screen went black.
“Well played, Lilia!” Stan was warm and positive. “Andrews caught on quickly, too . . . for an amateur. Now let’s see if it worked.”
She sat erect, in her chair. Her fingers, tapping a nervous rhythm on the armrest, were the only sign of the tension she bore.
“Somebody do something!” she said.
“Hey! Hey!” Stan cheered. “We’re getting a response. One Galleass is cutting and heading for high ground.”
“Really?” Lilia sounded like a child who had just aced a test she had no time to study for.
Stan chuckled at the surprised glee lighting her face. Despite the apparent danger, she clearly enjoyed the excitement. As Stan’s smile grew he carefully considered her enthusiasm. “Now tell me you weren’t great.”
DarkStar Running (Living on the Run Book 2) Page 8