Jake didn’t quite believe it. After all the ways he had screwed up his life so badly, it was hard to believe that he had finally fixed his own mess. But it was in Vidal’s own best interest to declare them free, and get back to his own stealing. And, if he had been reading between the lines correctly, Mr. Dashi might give him his job back for successfully collecting the metals he needed. Yes, things might finally be looking up for Jake Stewart.
***
“But why aren’t they maneuvering?” Sue asked.
“They don’t see us,” Nadine said.
“We’re not invisible, Nadine. If they point a scope at us, they’ll see us.”
“They don’t know that we’re here, so they don’t know where to point a scope. We’re not radiating any radar or any sort of electronic sweep, so they won’t know where we are. I didn’t say they can’t see us, just that they don’t see us. If they get any idea where we are, they can hunt for us. But they aren’t doing that now.”
“Because of the radio signal we heard?”
“Yup. That’s a very strong signal. They must be dumping a big communication to be running in ballistic. But that’s good news for us.”
“Why?”
“This looks like that TGI ship we heard about. The one that’s been buying all that PGMs. And running in ballistic means they can’t maneuver right now. I see an opportunity to finish out our mission in a hurry with a little larceny.”
“Don’t we get shot for that?”
“Only if we get caught. Right now, they can’t see anything and they can’t move. They’re sitting ducks. All we have to do is get in super close without being detected.”
“And then?”
“Look here,” Nadine said, pulling a ship schematic on her display. “This is a standard trader layout. Everything is on their external truss. See there? Those are control feeds for the laser, and those are for the antennas. That’s control for the engines and the fuel lines.”
“So?”
“Hit those lines and they’ll have no laser or antenna. And they won’t be able to control their engines. They’ll be floating in space, and we can promise to shoot the crap out of them unless they pay a ransom in PGMs.”
“Nadine, this is a scout, not a warship. And that’s a repurposed mining laser not a real weapon, and our computer can barely control it.”
“That’s why we are going to get really close.”
“A little direct, don’t you think?”
“Direct can be fun.”
Chapter 13
Jake watched his message queue slowly empty. There would be no acknowledgment of receipt for days most likely, but with the message coding and redundancies in the transmission it was pretty certain that everything would get through. That appealed to his orderly mind.
He returned to listening to Zeke’s chatter about what he was going to do next, now that they wouldn’t be stuck in the Militia, and he suddenly started to feel sad. Zeke would most likely find a place on another ship, probably Suzanne too. Once they got back, would he ever see them again. He finally felt like he had a made a real friend for the first time in a long while. He would miss Zeke.
And he would miss Suzanne. How she smelled. Maybe she would choose to stay on the Petrel. Vidal would certainly find a place for her. Jake felt his typical brooding thoughts return. She doesn’t think of you that way, Jake thought. You just have to move on.
***
“Okay, here’s what we’re doing. Big D, you suit up and be ready to go outside and pick up a package when we stop. But make sure that you’re strapped into that webbing near the lock. I’m going to program a few course changes in ahead of time, just in case they have some sort of auto-evade or auto-fire program loaded.”
“What’s that?” Big D asked.
“A computer program that alters course randomly whenever it detects a missile or mass driver firing, and fires defensive and offensive weapons.”
“Do we have one of those?”
“I wish. Too expensive. I’m going to be doing weapons. Sue will be flying. But really, all that happens is, when we’re close enough, fire at their laser, then their antenna, then the engines fuel lines. Then we flip and burn hard to slow down relative to them so we can get those PGMs.”
“Why not shoot out the engines?”
“If we shoot out their engines, we might cause an explosion and kill people, most importantly ourselves. Also, right now we’re just pirates. We can fade into the background. If we start killing whole starship crews, the Militia will send a squadron of ships to hunt us down and kill us all.”
“Got it.”
Nadine finished typing the course changes into the computer, then keyed the comm.
“Sue, this will be rough. You ready?”
“Ready, boss.”
***
Jake tugged at his restraints as he floated in his chair. One of the advantages, or disadvantages, of ballistic flight was no acceleration induced gravity. He watched as Zeke played with coin in the seat beside him, watching it spin in the zero gravity. He spun it again and it drifted ever so slightly sideways.
“We just hit something,” Jake said. “Something small.”
“What do you mean? I did not feel anything.”
A moment later the general quarters alarm sounded.
“Bong. General quarters. Bong. General quarters. Bong.”
Jake tightened his straps. Zeke did the same.
“Bong. General quarters. Bong. Stations for ship-to-ship combat. Bong.”
“Ship-to-ship combat? Jake, what is happening?” Zeke said. For the first time since Jake had met him, he thought he heard fear in Zeke’s voice.
The main lights went out and the emergencies came on. Jake felt a gentle sideways roll begin.
“I think we must have met some pirates,” Jake responded. That’s all he could think of. If that was the case, and if they were following the pirates’ playbook, then the next shots would be…
“Bong. Bridge control disabled. Secondary controls take over.”
That was bad. One of those shots must have cut the control lines. He felt the ship’s roll grow deeper. Yup, they must have cut the control and fuel lines to the engines. The escaping fuel was acting like a thruster and rolling them.
***
“Whooo hoooo!” Nadine yelled excitedly as her ship pivoted completely around. She kept her arms crossed across her chest, gripping the restraints as they finished their pivot. Flailing arms had been known to break fingers or wrists when they impacted a control board. When they rotated a full 180 degrees, she found herself being pressed firmly into the chair as the main engines fired to slow them.
She scanned her boards. “That was awesome! We got all three. No radar or comm from them, laser is down, and they’re venting fuel out the back.”
“Glad you like it,” Sue said. She looked green and was sweating heavily. Her nose was running, badly. Some people didn’t like high-G maneuvers.
“Cheer up. We’ll have the PMGs on board in no time.” She punched a comm. “Big D—we fly by in about a minute, then they’ll gradually catch up to us. Stay sharp.”
Nadine leaned back and began to count the number of oranges that she would eat. One every day? How much would that cost?
***
Jake shut the airlock hatch behind him and stood next to Zeke while he waited for the air to cycle out.
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait inside, Zeke?” Jake asked.
“Jake, it will be fine. You are going to do all the work. I am just watching.”
“Watching with that big rifle.”
“Like Vidal said, we told them we’d have somebody armed on the hull, just in case.”
“Guns make me nervous.”
“You should only be frightened if the gun is pointed at you,” Zeke said. “Or if you are the one holding the gun.” Zeke laughed at this own joke. Jake smiled a little but tried not to show Zeke.
“Jake,” Vidal’s voice came through Jake’s comm. “You’ll ne
ed to freehand your way along the hull to find the shepherd’s crook.”
Then you’ll wait till somebody from the pirate ship shoots a line at you. Catch it, fix it to the ship, and get ready to winch a package over.”
“Yes, sir. I know what I’m doing.”
“I don’t need any lip from you, Stewart,” Vidal said, “Just do this right and maybe you won’t accidentally spin away to die in the void or get hit by a line, or the shepherd’s crook.
The airlock finished cycling, and Jake opened the outer door. He and Zeke climbed out.
He arrived at a spot just behind the fueling port, opened a hatch, and hefted the long metal rod with a hook at the end. He latched his safety on, then switched to the ship-to-ship hailing channel.
“This is Petrel fuel party. I mean the Petrel line party. Ready for your shot.”
“Stand by, Petrel,” a woman’s voice replied. Odd, it sounded very familiar.
“Waiting,” Jake said. He watched the other ship.
“There are two of you there. One of you has a rifle,” the voice sounded over the comm.
“Correct.”
“No rifle. That could cause problems. You have to dump it.”
Jake cursed inside. It was already going sideways.
“What’s the problem, you think we’ll shoot you from here? With that big laser turret pointing directly at us.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think. Dump it.”
“It’s too valuable to dump. What if we put it in the locker here and move away. You can see us, so if one of us goes into the locker you can blow us up or whatever.”
“Good compromise. That will do. We really don’t want to hurt you. No percentages in that.”
“Whatever. Zeke?”
Zeke slid slowly along the ship to the locker and cached the rifle inside, then closed it and trooped back. As soon as he was a distance away, a figure emerged from the far airlock with a compressed air powered messenger rifle. His shot was quite wild, pinging on the hull almost 20 meters away. Apparently, pirates were lousy at regular space actions. Jake cursed and did a diving run, flipping over in mid-air and landing next to it with a thud. He hooked the loop at the end easily and carried it back to the bollards. Jake looped it over and engaged the locking lever. They were designed for quick release, and if not, then breakaway. Jake could throw the lever under tension to release the line, or if there was too much tension, the thin metal below would split, saving the ship’s hull.
Jake keyed his radio. “Done. Attach the transfer line.”
Jake waited while the figure on the far end attempted to attach a transfer line to the messenger line. He kept botching it. The transfer line needed both ends to be attached to the messenger, then Jake would haul the messenger in and attach the transfer line around a pully. Then whatever was attached to the two loose ends of the line made a loop that could be wheeled back and forth between the ships.
Jake waited a good five minutes, but the figure on the other side kept screwing up. Now he appeared to have tangled the whole line together. This was going to take forever.
He went on the radio. “Do you need assistance?” Jake asked. “I can do this much faster than you can. Clip your end to your hull, and I’ll pull the slack over and attach the messenger here. Then you can pull it over.”
“Stay put, Petrel, otherwise you’ll get a laser in the face,” the woman’s voice said. Where had he heard that voice?
“What’s the problem?” Nadine asked.
“I’ve never done this before. It’s hard,” Dimitrios said.
“Tying a rope is hard?”
“It’s not a rope, it’s a line. These bollards or bollocks or whatever they are have to feed a certain way. And it’s metal, so it doesn’t bend the right way.”
“How difficult can it be?”
“Do you want to come back and do it?”
“Not really. D, we need this to get the goods.”
“I know. We need a plan B.”
“Do you want to go and get them?”
“I can’t maneuver 100 kilograms by myself, even in zero-G. I’ll crash. I’m no good at zero-G maneuvers.”
“Why the hell did we bring you then?”
“To hit and shoot people not tie knots. Give me somebody to hit. I’ll do that. Right now, I really want to hit somebody.”
“Pirate ship, this is third officer Vidal, I’m the deck officer. We really want this to be over and done with, so how about we just load up your goods, and jet them over from the airlock.”
“We’re not a pirate ship.”
“Of course. What is your ship name?
“Previous Solution.”
“Okay, Previous Solution, do you want your ransom or not?”
Jake stood, listening. This was on the ship-to-ship channel. Both sides heard this. Why was Vidal intervening?
“Fine, that’s a good idea. Let our guy get inside our lock, and you can send it over.”
“We have people ready to go.”
“Just one. Send Jake over with the goods. The others stay.”
“He’ll have to make multiple trips.”
“That’s fine.”
“Very well. Jake, LaFleur, back to the airlock. Jake will pick up two boxes and jet them over, then come back for the other two.”
Jake and Zeke returned into the airlock and popped their helmets as the door closed.
“Listen up, everybody,” Vidal barked. “New plan. Jake, this first box has mixed platinum and others. Jet it across and give it to their guy. This second box has a sand caster round. While he’s looking at the first one, pop it open and the round will fire five seconds later. We’ve reduced it to about a quarter charge, but it will still bang around.”
He paused and looked at Suzanne. “Suzanne figures she can hit the laser control lines with a rifle from here. As soon as the charge goes off and Suzanne takes out the laser, LaFleur and I will jet across,” he said, indicating Zeke. “We’ll both be armed with shotguns and revolvers. Any questions.”
“They’ll shoot me in the airlock once the charge goes off,” Jake said.
“While that wouldn’t be much of a waste, I don’t think they will. One of their guys obviously doesn’t know what he’s doing. And if they had more help, they wouldn’t have agreed to use bringing the goods over ourselves, so they must be a small crew. The one idiot in the lock will be stunned by the charge. Then LaFleur and I will be there with the shotguns before you can say ‘Imperial proclamation’. We’ll take control of their ship, get back our PMGs, and be done with this idiotic affair.”
“This will never work,” Jake said.
“Of course, it will. Speed and surprise always overcomes an unprepared enemy.”
“They were pretty prepared when they got the drop on us,” Jake objected.
“Special circumstances,” Vidal snapped and glared at Jake. “Everybody ready. Good.” Vidal didn’t wait for an answer.
Vidal sealed his helmet and everybody hurried to do the same. Then they stepped out of sight while Jake stepped up to the airlock. When the door light turned blue, he swung the outer door open and stepped out with the first two cases.
“He’s coming over now with the first two boxes,” Jake heard Vidal say over the comm.
Jake steadied himself, activated his suit jets and began to slowly cross between the ships. He couldn’t go too fast. Items might not have weight in space, but they did have mass, and speeding up and slowing down cost fuel.
Jake floated toward the cargo lock. He could see a person inside it. “Coming in with the goods,” Jake said over the comm. He slipped through the cargo lock and stopped himself using a toe bar. A huge figure in an oversized hard suit stood in front of him, holding an odd-looking rifle.
“That’s a gauss rifle,” Jake said..
“Relax,” said the man in front of him. “I won’t shoot you if you’ve followed instructions. Open the cases.”
He hadn’t seen a gauss rifle since he had to kill his form
er best friend who had turned out to be a weapons smuggler and had framed him for murder.
Focus, Jake, he thought. He opened the first case and slid it across the airlock floor. The man glanced down, and Jake popped the second one open and shoved it across the floor. He made sure the shove propelled himself backward so that he floated out of the airlock.
Jake grabbed another bar and swung himself out to the side. Facing away from the Previous Solution, he had a clear view of Vidal and Zeke launching themselves across space toward him just as the hatchway vomited a huge plume of sand. He saw flashes coming from the airlock as Suzanne began shooting at the laser. Two. Three. Four. She stopped. Jake saw his aspect change in regards to the Petrel. The maneuvering jets must be firing, he thought, as the Previous Solution spun over. He looked back to the ship’s stern to see if he could see the blue glow that meant the fusion engine was engaging.
He had a perfect view as the Previous Solution’s engine vanes exploded.
***
“Idiot,” screamed Captain Marchello. “I told you to hit the other ship.”
“But captain, we haven’t fired the mass driver this trip. I told you we needed to calibrate.”
“Silence! Silence! You dare to speak back to me.” The captain began to slap the gunner’s face with his white uniform gloves. The captain always carried the gloves with him, but rarely wore them.
“We were to hit the TGI pirate. Now we have injured that innocent free-trader.” The captain slapped the gunner again.
The first officer cleared his throat. It had been bad luck for everybody. Bad luck that the captain was on the bridge when they detected the two ships. Bad luck that those ships had not detected the Bountiful Onion before it got within shooting distance. Didn’t either of those ships have anybody on sensor watch? Of course, it might have something to do with all the sand floating around. And, bad luck that they had never fired the mass driver before, so of course it was not firing true.
“Captain, there is some question as to who was the attacker was and who the attacked.”
Orbital Claims Adjuster: Adventures of a Jump Space Accountant Book 2 Page 16