Sock chirped. “Awaiting orders.”
“O-pin. Seldy.”
“Order confirmed. Now opening cell D.”
The pirate cursed and tried to stop it, but too late. Their cell had opened.
The other guards flanked the door, weapons out, but Darren was quicker. He dove out in a blur, yanked the blaster-rifle from the guard closest to him, and used the butt to knock him out. He took three shots, and the hallway fell silent.
“Let’s go.” He padded down the hall toward the console that would open the door. Lucas and the others followed him out.
“Your boyfriend is sort of terrifying,” Caspar said to Mulligan.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she muttered quietly.
Darren fiddled with the console, which immediately locked him out. He folded his arms, glaring at it as if it would bend to his will.
“Sock,” Lucas said, “initiate simulation sequence 2-1-9, infestation scenario.”
“Order confirmed. Simulation initiated. Captain Odin to the bridge; alien infestation detected aboard the Fairfax.”
Red lights flashed and an alarm began to blare. The door hissed open.
“Alright.” Lucas grabbed a couple of blasting pistols from one of the fallen pirates. “Let’s reclaim our ship.”
—
The lift was on lockdown as part of the sim. They could have hacked in to override it—maybe—but it would have cost valuable time, and Lucas had no idea if any of the pirates onboard would figure out how to reconfigure Sock beforehand. So they trotted down a series of passages to a maintenance shaft, instead. Caspar helped him pry a panel from the wall, revealing a ladder.
“In we go,” he said. Darren ducked inside and was out of sight before Lucas could blink.
“Which level?” Mulligan asked, going in after him.
“Go up five,” Lucas said. “The bridge. No, wait.” He stopped her by the ankle. “You need to round up a force to help us take control up there. Go to security, spy it out. If any officers can be freed, bring them up. If it can’t be done without backup, get back to us. Caspar, can you take the rear?”
She snorted.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He tossed her one of the weapons, then waited for Mulligan to get out before he crawled into the shaft and started climbing.
By the time he reached their level, the others had gathered around the door to the bridge.
“Sock,” Lucas called, “Open the door.”
Chapter 16
Darren leapt inside and landed in a roll. At the same time, Caspar reached the environment console, and shut the lights off. Lasers sprang to life as the pirates tried to take aim in the dark, but Darren was too fast for them. To Lucas, it seemed that they were falling all around him. How one man could do that, he didn’t know. But he decided to help.
He plunged into the darkness, groping, and bumped into one of the pirates. The man jumped in surprise, and Lucas lurched forward, grabbing him and pushing him down onto his back. He landed with a thud and didn’t move. One down.
Lucas reached up and felt for a weapon. He found a blasting pistol in the man’s hand, and took it. No good, he realized as he swung it around. He couldn’t fire indiscriminately and risk harming his own people.
“Ahh!” He heard Caspar’s anguished cry just after a blaster went off. His heart leapt into his throat, and he sprang to his feet, running back in the direction of the environment console. He felt along the wall for a moment, but wasn’t finding it, so he aimed his pistol at the wall in front of him and shot off a round. It put a smoking hole in the paneling, but the brief flash of light was enough to illuminate the console just a few feet to the side. He jumped at it and swiped, bringing up the control screen, and called up the lights.
Just in time to see Darren take down the last two pirates still on their feet. That man, Lucas decided, was a terror.
Caspar was moving, sliding herself backwards to lean against the wall, clutching her left thigh. Lucas raced to her side. “Are you alright?” he asked.
She looked up at him, breathing heavily. “Oh yeah, I’m ship-shape, never felt better. Except maybe for this gaping, smoking hole in my leg. Do I look alright??”
“Do I look alright, Sir,” he joked. She scowled and looked away. “Here, let me see.” He patted her arm and she took her hand away from the wound. His stomach rolled when he saw it, but his mind told him it wasn’t serious. “You’ll live,” he said. “Might lose the leg, though. Maybe you can commandeer a pirate ship of your own, get a peg-leg, become the terror of the Colonies.”
“Har har.” She looked for herself. “You ass. It’s just a scratch.”
He smiled, and, to his enduring delight, she smiled back. Then she saw Darren over his shoulder, and she began to struggle to her feet. Lucas held out a hand for her. She climbed up the wall instead.
Lucas turned at the sound of blaster fire. Darren stood over a body, a pistol in-hand.
“Aren’t they all subdued?” Lucas asked.
“Some live.” Darren walked to another body and kicked it. A woman moaned. Darren aimed the pistol at her head.
“No! Don’t shoot them!” Lucas took a step toward him, pausing when Darren looked up.
“She’s a pirate. Rules of war do not apply. If you let her live, she will still be a pirate. She may even face you in battle again. And win.”
“No.” Lucas held up his hands. “We don’t shoot prisoners onboard the Fairfax. We give quarter when we win a battle—I don’t care who the enemy is.”
Darren’s eyes closed to slits. Caspar came up behind Lucas. The pistol arm relaxed. “Very well,” he said. “Then you should at least interrogate her.” He kicked the pirate again. “She’s in command now. He was before.” He nodded at the man he had shot just a moment ago.
“How do you know that?”
“Rank stripes. On their belts.”
Lucas came closer and peered down at the woman’s belt. It bore five deep etchings in the leather.
“My eyes are up here,” she said.
He looked up and met them. And, for a moment, forgot about Lieutenant Caspar.
The doors hissed open and Mulligan dashed in, leading a squad of security privates.
“A little late to the party,” Caspar said.
“Four survive,” Darren said. He crossed back to stand beside the door beside Mulligan. She nodded.
“Captain, permission to secure the prisoners in the brig?”
Lucas nodded. “Granted.” The woman glared at him, then pushed herself to her feet. She was taken away with the others.
Randall stumbled onto the bridge.
“You look terrible,” Lucas said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ve been worse, Sir.” He ran a hand over his hair. “After a night at the pub with Adams.”
Lucas snorted. “I can believe that. Can you man the helm?”
They took their seats.
“Sock, run a sweep for other ships in our vicinity.” He sat on the edge of the chair. “Where are you, kid?” he murmured.
The computer chirped to life. “An unidentified ship is flying behind Pallas. Closing on current position.”
“The core is on Pallas?” Lucas shot Darren a look.
“Second ship detected,” Sock said.
“On-screen!”
The viewscreen displayed a familiar vessel, a nasty looking tug covered in armaments. Lucas almost growled when he saw it.
“Our pirates!” Caspar said.
“It would appear so.” Lucas cracked a knuckle. “Lieutenant, what do we have for firepower?”
“Quarter array, Sir. That’s all they’ve left us.”
Lucas called up a tactical display on-screen. Sure enough, two little red dot blipped from behind Pallas and headed their way. Both pirate ships? “We’re sitting ducks,” he mumbled. He looked around the bridge. All of this was going to be destroyed—or taken—and their mission would fail. Not even Darren could stop the pirates now.
His comm sparked to life and he slapped it open. “Odin,” he barked.
“Private Tompkins, Sir, reporting for duty.”
“Tompkins? You lousy space-rat, you’re alive? I could kiss you!”
“Well, uh, Sir, I think I’m alive. That is, I don’t seem to be dead. Might forgo the kisses, if you don’t mind—that is, unless the Lieutenant will be delivering those on your behalf.”
“Tell him he’ll get a kiss if he’s got any guns on that thing,” Caspar said.
“You hear that, Private?”
“Loud and clear. I guess it’s my lucky day, because this little thing is packing rotaries. No chance to get to the blasted core with that pirate ship harassing you, but I’m armed and ready, Sir. Orders?”
Caspar grinned.
“I want you in the lee of Pallas,” Lucas said. “Sending coordinates now. You’re to come out shooting the second you see us—understood?”
“Uh… the second I see the Fairfax, Sir?”
“Your capacity to listen is astounding. Yes, fire when you see the Fairfax.”
“Ok, Sir, you’re the captain. Am I to assume there’s a plan here, and you aren’t simply hoping to avoid being torn to shreds by the kinetics?”
“Yes. Now get moving.”
He closed the channel and turned to Caspar. “Missiles ready, Lieutenant?”
“All set, Sir.”
“Randall, let’s lead them on a little chase around the asteroid.”
“Aye, Sir.”
Lucas bit his tongue as he watched them come nearer the approaching pirate ship. When the pirates sent a volley of nukes, he stood up and shouted orders.
“Caspar, counter!”
“Aye, Sir!”
“Helm, hard to starboard!”
They pulled back and showed their belly to the enemy just as the missiles sailed into the pirate offensive. The explosion lit of the bottom of the screen. Lucas fell into the chair.
“Full power, everything we have!” he shouted, knowing they only had so much juice in the engine room from their solar sail. “Helm, hug the surface as tight as you can, and be ready to break away on my mark!”
“Sir!” Randall bent to his task, bring the Fairfax into a sharp turn to approach Pallas. Lucas’ body was pinched into the corner of his chair, and he snapped into his harness.
“Sock,” he called, “prepare to jettison trash chutes.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Enemy missiles detected!” Caspar called. Tactical showed another wave of dots speeding toward the Fairfax.
“Jettison trash chutes now, aft!”
“Order confirmed; venison ash-root chow, mashed.” The dispenser beside his chair hummed to life.
“Sock!!” Lucas pulled up maintenance commands on his console and slammed his palm down to jettison the chutes. A few seconds later, Sock replied.
“Detonation aft. Enemy missiles destroyed.”
Lucas blew out his breath and wiped his forehead.
Caspar raised her eyebrows. “Good thinking on the chutes, Sir.”
“I’m learning, Lieutenant.” He opened his comm again. “Gunner, you in position?”
“Locked and loaded, Sir.”
Randall had brought them in to hug the surface, and they were slinging around similarly to how they had slung around the moon in the sim. Pallas’ uneven surface and lack of spherical unity made this quite a bit more tricky. It wasn’t the smoothest ride. Nevertheless, the pirate ship had homed in on them and taken the bait. They entered the sling behind the Fairfax, closing.
Lucas watched the relationship of all three ships on tactical. Just before they cleared the horizon to appear in Tompkin’s sights, he shouted, “Mark! Pull away, pull away!”
Randall snapped them out of the sling even more violently than in the sim. Lucas flew up against his harness, grunting.
“Your gambit will succeed,” Darren said.
Lucas looked over his shoulder and saw Darren had planted himself against the wall, holding onto the console beside the door. Lucas snorted. “Happy to hear it. Tompkins? Fire!”
The spray of kinetics shot out into space toward them, but they were moving too quickly to get caught in the path. Instead it was the pirate ship behind them that took the full force of the attack. The ship slowed and turned portside, their helm obviously trying to decide what to do about Tompkins. The kid circled around them in the maneuverable smaller ship, spraying them intermittently with his rotary guns. Lucas let himself breathe out a sigh of satisfaction.
“Bring us about,” he ordered. “Head to head. Caspar, stand ready.”
“Ready at will, Sir.”
They pulled around in a long, graceful arc, while Tompkins kept the other ship busy. They hadn’t moved from position by the time the Fairfax was facing them.
“Everything you have left, Lieutenant. Fire at will.”
“Aye Sir!”
Caspar grinned like a devil, sending their last reserves headlong into the path of the pirate ship. Tompkins made one last pass, spraying bullets as he did, then dodged out of the way before the little wave of nukes crashed head-on into the enemy.
Lucas unsnapped his harness and rose to his feet, whooping and leaping into the air. His crew joined him in a moment of celebration. Then his comm pinged, picking up a livefeed.
“On-screen, Sock.”
The scene that came to view was a sobering one of death and chaos. The air of the pirate bridge was choked in smoke. Klaxons sounded and emergency lights flared. The speaker—he looked no older than Tompkins—fought to be heard.
“We surrender, Fleet-ship! Give us quarter.”
“No conditions,” Lucas said.
The kid looked around, but there didn’t seem to be anyone left for him to answer to. “No conditions.”
Lucas nodded. “We’ll send medics over. Odin out.” He killed the channel, falling back into the chair. The weight of lives, even guilty ones, fell on his shoulders.
“I’ll lead the team,” he said. “Lieutenant, you have the bridge. I’m going to check for Taurius. And our nukes.”
“Sir, I respectfully demand you reconsider,” she said. “With commanding officer prisoners onboard, you should stay on the ship.”
He looked at her a moment.
“I’ll go,” Darren said. “Run a scan. I’ll find anything it doesn’t.”
Lucas raised his eyebrows. “I’m inclined, for once, to believe you. Alright. Darren, take Mulligan and a few medics and other security officers. Caspar, you need to see a medic yourself.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“But you still need a medic.”
She scoffed, but left the bridge to have her leg looked at.
Lucas ordered the scans to commence, then called up a group of privates to haul the pirate bodies off the floor and to the docks. What a mess of a first command, he thought grimly.
Chapter 17
In the end, Darren’s excursion only confirmed what Sock had already told them—the nukes were gone, as was Taurius. Lucas had the acting pirate captain in the Fairfax brig, with security restored. Now he paid her a visit.
He found her leaning against the wall, arms folded across her chest, a look in her eyes as if she would bore a hole through the hull to escape, if she could. But she didn’t move when he came into view, bringing a chair for himself, nor when he opened the comm.
“My friend wants us to torture you for information,” he said.
She sneered. “You don’t have the stomach for it.”
“Maybe not.” He set the chair down in front of the cell and sat in it. “But he does.”
Her back seemed to straighten a little. Yes, whether she knew who Darren was or not, she’d clearly seen enough of him in action to believe it—and to fear him. Lucas didn’t like so much as hinting at the idea that he would condone such a thing to happen on his ship. But better to let her think it, and spill her secrets, than to let it get that far.
“You’re bluffing.” She
was squinting at his eyes. He’d never had a good poker face. He shrugged.
“I am. But I really don’t think that he is. And I get the feeling he’s only pretending to take my orders, so if I were you, I’d consider telling us what you know.”
She pushed off from the wall and paced across the cell, chuckling. “I don’t know anything, Fleet-man. What do you want to hear? Some kind of secret plot to do harm to the Colonies? Some super-secure codes to let you hack the Ceres mainframe, or get a bead on Empire security?” She scoffed. “I’m just a grunt. Like you. What do you know, anyway?”
“Actually,” he stood, “any of that would be great, if you’re volunteering to spill juicy secrets. But all I really need to know is one thing. Where’s your prisoner?”
She scrunched up her face. “What?”
“C’mon, you can’t have missed him. Tall guy, skinny.” He gestured at himself. “But pale as ice. A proclivity for wearing purple.”
She laughed in his face. “Taurius? Wake up, man. He wasn’t a prisoner. He was hitching a ride.”
It was Lucas’ turn to be confused. “Why would he do that? He was our guest. We were taking him to—” He stopped, deciding not to tell her about their location, in case it wasn’t common knowledge in her circles.
“To your little peace summit?” She coughed and put her hands in her pockets. “Yeah, that’s what you thought. He was never on board your ship to go to Pluto. He was nothing but a shepherd. He’s not your real loss. But I thought you would have figured that out by now.” She smiled, clearly enjoying making a fool of him. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“I’m all ears,” he said, his voice a miserable croak.
“You didn’t find it odd that when you got held up in the depths of space, all they wanted were your nukes?”
“Figured it was a cover for the real prize—Taurius.”
She shook her head. “Too obvious. Think about it for a second.”
“There’s some kind of armament shortage on Ceres?” She kept shaking it. “Or the whole Empire? Are you all out of nukes? Or maybe…” He began to pace. “There’s a bigger problem, and you’ve lost the capacity to make more?”
Starship Fairfax: Books 1-3 Omnibus - The Kuiper Chronicles: The Lunar Gambit, The Hidden Prophet, The Neptune Contingency Page 11