“We’ll find out when we arrive, “Shakti told her. “Everyone, get ready to move. Chimata, can you find us the best way to the propulsion system?”
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Chimata told her. “All we have to do is make our way down a side tunnel and greet them. You want me to shut down something and give them a little surprise? Perhaps set an air vent on delay? All kinds of ways we could give this bunch a party they will never forget. Of course, I don’t think they’re the type who surrenders. Just let me know what you want to do.”
Durga and the women with her joined them a few minutes later. They encountered no resistance in their exploration of the pirate ship.
“We’ll go down the tunnel you mentioned,” Shakti told her. “Look, we’ve been lucky so far. None of these idiots is a god of war and they don’t attack as a trained unit. They all ran at us the last time, but there was no coordination. By now, they should understand what and whom they are dealing with, but I can’t guarantee they’ll fight according to a script. So don’t let any of them hit you with surprises. Stay close and listen to commands. Everyone echo the command. We may all be on the same channel, but repeating the command helps sink it in. And for the sake of our husband, be sure and talk to each other. Okay, let’s go and finish this thing.”
The tunnel had to be descended to reach the propulsion unit. According to the map they discovered, there was a landing at the bottom where the propulsion system was reached. From Shakti’s observation, this made it a choke point where numbers wouldn’t matter until one side was tossed back. Her plan was for her and Kamala to be in the first group. She would descend to the bottom of the tunnel and then hold the entrance point. If they encountered resistance at the bottom, they would let the other warbrides know and hold the enemy back as long as they could. Shakti expected a welcoming committee at the bottom of the shaft. It all depended on how quickly they could take advantage of the situation.
She climbed down a latter inserted into to the wall of the tunnel and reached the bottom in minutes with Kamala. They stopped and looked around. No welcoming committee, but a sealed hatch was in front of them. She turned and looked at Kamala who nodded to her. Shakti walked to the hatch and looked at it. The door was open. They wanted them to come inside. The pirates had set a trap.
“Alright,” she transmitted. “The rest of you can come down here. Be quick, the door is open to the propulsion units and I’m certain the rest of the pirates are behind it.” Minutes later, all of the warbrides were on the landing. They crowded around Shakti waiting for a command.
“Who wants to be the first one through?” She asked her co-wives.
“I’ll do it,” Tara said as she moved up to the front of the unit. Shakti nodded at her.
Tara, a smile on her face, visible through her helmet, took her sword and eased the door open. She looked inside and walked into it, checking to see if anyone was on the other side of the door. As she filed in, she motioned to the rest of them and Shakti followed with Durga behind her.
“They’re in here,” Shakti sated to the rest of them. “I know it, there’s nowhere else to go.”
Chimata sent an arrow flying across the enclosed room they were inside and a figure fell from the walkway, his sword spilling out on the floor where he impacted. It was another one of the pirates, but he did not have the face of the man who issued the challenge.
“One less,” Chimata commented as she put another arrow into the crossbow. It was hard to believe this woman came from a refined background.
Suddenly the chamber they were in filled with bodies and swords.
Bravi was thrown off balance as a man twice her size slammed into her. She went down, slid across the floor and jumped up with the shield held high. The man ran at her again, but he’d lost the element of surprise. She jumped back as he swung through the air with the bastard sword he carried. She ducked and vanished under it. His sword wouldn’t have cut through her suit armor, but she would’ve been severely hurt from the impact of the blow. She spun to one side, and then let him run at her again. Just as the pirate, who had long hair and no shirt, struck down at her thigh, Bravi spun out of his range and struck up with the point of her short sword. It cleaved into his chest, sending blood everywhere. He howled in pain and charged her one more time.
Bravi jumped back and hit a machine of some kind. This caused her to bounce off it. She brought her round shield up just fast enough to deflect the blow from his larger sword, but she felt the pain of the strike through her body. He intended to kill her or die in the attempt. Bravi decided the only thing to do was help him out. She swept under him as the pirate cranked back for another strike and avoided the swing. In one swift movement, she used her sword to hook downward and cut into the femoral artery on his leg. When he went down screaming, she ran back to help the other warbrides.
The worse thing that could have happened had taken place: the warbrides were separated and trying to fight as individuals, not as a unit. A group of three pirates tried to corner Kamala, but she swung her halberd at them every time they tried to advance. She could see their rage as none of them could attack her and survive. Still, they were not able to understand the concept of teamwork and each time one of them tried to rush her; she struck down with her ax, slashing away at a vital part.
After Dharma’s arrow found its target on another enraged pirate, she notched another one and ran to help her co-wives. She ran toward a group, which consisted of Tara, Lashmi and Chimata. They managed to pull together and form a triad of shields. Once behind them, Dharma launched another arrow at one of the pirates. He grabbed his arm where it struck and screamed as he tried to stop the blood flow. He managed to cause three more pirates to fall over as he went down, which made them easy targets for the triad. They went to work chopping them to small parts. Two pirates ran to help their fallen brothers until one of Dharma’s arrows took one of them out. The other turned and ran to the sound of more fighting on the other side of the room.
Shakti and Durga were finished with their four pirates who tried to attack them. They saw a man run at them. Before he reached them, Druga’s halberd sliced into his neck. He went down in a fountain of blood. They turned to see the triad of shields with Dharma join up with them. Shakti spotted Kamala in trouble with the pirates and pulled the warbrides to her help.
The trio of pirates turned just in time to see the warbrides attack them from the rear. These three had a little skill and pulled out in opposite directions. It didn’t do them any good as Tara, Lashmi and Chimata had them cornered in seconds. One ran at Tara and almost knocked her over until Dharma’s arrow brought him down. The other went over fast as the combined swords of the three women slashed across his face at the same time.
The final pirate was the captain, the image that taunted them in the command center. He held two swords and found himself cornered by the advancing warbrides. He was a huge man, easily six foot four and three hundred pounds. He carried the swords and slammed down at the encroaching line, but they backed up every time he swung. Slashes from his unsuccessful fight against Kamala were all over his body. He raised the swords up and dared anyone to take him.
“You are all a bunch of filthy whores,” he told them. “Sick, twisted sluts who do the emperor’s bidding. You think he will ever show you any respect? You think he’ll have you inside his perfumed palace? He’ll let his troops take turns on each of you before….”
Dharma’s arrow silenced him by punching right through his mouth. He went down and didn’t move.
They turned back to the bodies piled up on the floor. Even those who had gone down with a slash had bled out. There was no further movement from the pile.
There was silence in the room. Finally, Shakti unsealed her helmet and placed it by her side. The other warbrides did the same and looked at the bodies. The air smelled of death: blood, flesh and sweat. No one said a word.
Except for Dharma who stood in by herself holding her crossbow in one hand the helmet in the other. She star
ed at the body of the pirate captain and seethed with hatred.
“Call me a whore,” she rattled at the body. “Call me a whore again and see what happens. Who’s the whore now?” Her face flamed in rage.
They piled the pirate bodies into an incineration unit and blasted the ashes into outer space. The warbrides took whatever trinkets they could find off the bodies to identify them for later. They took images of the dead and any tattoos on the bodies for further identification. Shakti decided to leave the identification to the empire; she had enough slaughter for one day. They collected all the medallions, religious medals and personal items found on each of them. With some surprise, they noted many family memorials on the pirates. It was hard to believe, but even psychotic killers were young children once upon a time.
Salina was taken back to the Widowmaker and given a funeral devised by her co-wives. The lined up in front of her body, which was dressed in her uniform and placed in a vacant torpedo they had found on the pirate ship. As the final farewell was said to her, Shakti sent her body in a trajectory, which would terminate in the star they were orbiting. There were several religions followed by most of the warbrides. She couldn’t decide which one to use as no one recalled Salina adhering to any one faith, so Shakti devised a funeral that borrowed from them all. It satisfied everyone.
They found the captive two standard days later while the warbrides took inventory of what the pirate ship contained. Kamala moved a box away from one door and heard a sound on the other side. She ran back and grabbed her halberd before doing anything else. She then grabbed the internal radio they’d confiscated from the ship’s stores and told Shakti about the sound.
“I’m sending Tara down,” she said. “Give her a few minutes to arrive before you do anything else.”
When Tara arrived, she and Kamala moved the crate out of the way of the door and looked at the latch on it. The latch was a simple one and whoever locked it used the easiest way they could to secure it. They had not found anything in the ship’s logs about additional passengers, but the pirates were not known for keeping precise records. Most of what they found was a record of places raided and loot hauled away. There were records about who received the spoils, but those would be of little use to them now.
“Appears to be a simple lock,” Tara said to Kamala. “You want to take care of it or do I get to do the honor?”
“I’ve got it,” Kamala said to her as she slammed her halberd down on the latch and snapped it off.
Next, she pried open the door with her ax blade and pulled it open. They looked inside and saw a faint movement. It was dark in there and the light was absorbed by the small room. Kamala walked inside and looked down.
There was the figure of a bound man beneath them. He had his hands tied and was gagged. There was no way to tell how long he’d been held in the room and they were amazed he was still alive. Tara took out her knife and cut away the ropes after Kamala hauled him out.
“Who are you?” Tara asked him. The man was in his twenties and had a full head of black hair with a two-day growth of beard on his face. He coughed and tried to talk. It was obvious he was dehydrated. Kamala pulled out a canteen by her side and poured water down his throat. He wore a tunic of grey and had a metal collar about his neck. He was thin and didn’t have any of the swagger they saw in pirates.
“Seth,” he coughed. “My name is Seth. Please don’t let them take me again. I’ll do anything, just get me away.” His voice was weak and he looked ill.
“We have someone who appears to have been captured,” Kamala radioed back to the corvette were most of the warbrides were situated. “Appears to have been tied up and left behind when the pirates attacked. What do I do with him?”
“Bring him back here and we’ll have a look at the man,” Shakti told her. “We need to find out where he comes from. Until we know, I have to assume he was with the pirates. Don’t let him out of your sight.”
They managed to haul the man called Seth to the corvette right away. The warbrides took him into the infirmary and let the autodoctor go to work checking him out. He appeared to have been without food or water for several days and was close to death. The autodoc went to work on him and provided the man with enough fluids and nutrients enough to keep him alive.
Shakti watched Seth improve over the next few days. He was not a bad looking man, which was bound to cause some problems in the unit. She had watched several of her co-wives walk by and admire him as he improved. Over the next few days, he’d managed to sit up and tell them how he was the only survivor of a settlement raided by the pirates. His story checked out with what they could find when the war college was contacted. He didn’t know why they let him live, other than a need for someone on board who could do the mundane tasks the pirates didn’t want to do. The autodoc recorded a series of mental and physical abuses unleashed on him. He wouldn’t talk much out of what happened.
The pirate ship was stripped of anything valuable by a series of shuttles traveling back and forth from a dreadnought brought to the point where they had found it. Several prefects poured over it in an attempt to figure out where the pirates had it built. The empire wanted to know how many settlements this pirate ship had attacked and were they in communication with any other pirate clans in the empire.
She thought a lot about the curse the pirate captain had hurled at her and the warbrides at the end of the fighting. No matter how they were beaten against the overwhelming odds or the skill the women showed together, the pirates still considered them whores. The word burned into her stomach as it was hurled at her constantly while she plied her old trade. It didn’t matter how much glory they won for the empire, there would always be people out there who looked down on them.
Shakti saw the rage in the other women’s faces when the pirate captain had snarled the word at them. Whore. That was all he saw at the moment of his own death. To be killed by a bunch of whores, it must have been the most humiliating thing imaginable to him. Good, let him take that knowledge with him to hell.
“So I guess we’re a bunch of whores,” Durga said to her the next day as they worked on the swords. The weapons dulled during the fight and they needed to get them sharp again.
“No,” Shakti said to her. “We’re warbrides and don’t you forget it.”
She felt the responsibility of leading these women. The emperor had ennobled them by making the women his outer brides. Officially, they were married to him and part of his entourage. If they ever made it back to Terra, they would be allowed to follow him behind the other wives in all processions. But Shakti wondered still if they were supposed to survive these missions. So far, the war college appeared surprised every time they checked in with them. She had the feeling they never expected her to contact them each time she transmitted to the planet.
Right now, they were in a discussion about letting them use the pirate ship they’d captured. Shakti could see the advantage of having another ship, but she worried it would spread them thin. In theory, it only took four people to pilot a corvette. This freed the company up for more battle resources. But theory didn’t hold much water when they were in the midst of combat against the wasps, as they would soon be.
She was determined to lead the warbrides against the wasps and return home to glory and honor. Never again would anyone call them whores to their face. Not after they were able to show the empire it was they who saved it. Shakti sat in her cabin and looked at the wall. Right now, she needed a little tenderness and tried not to think about Seth in the infirmary. Yes, she could, any of them could. Was it was their right as warbrides? However, she wouldn’t. Not when her co-wives had to go without. She had to set an example, even when the need was great upon her.
“You’re thinking about Seth, down in the infirmary,” Durga said to her in the sauna then next day. “Aren’t you?” Shakti tried to avoid her eyes.
“We’re warbrides,” Shakti returned. She had towel wrapped around her, although Durga sat naked on the bench and let the steam
rise over her.
“Our Imperial Husband wouldn’t mind,” Durga told him. “How could he, with all he has in the palace. I think it might be in the charter we can have our way with captured enemy.”
“It’s not it the part I read.”
Durga leaned back and smiled.
Chapter 10
“I want you to stay out of the way, understand?”
Shakti was in the infirmary with Seth, the colonist they’d rescued from the pirate ship. His strength was improving, but she was still concerned about his health. He was on her mind because the last thing she needed right now was a young man loose among her co-wives when they were in combat mode. She’d already lost two of the other warbrides and their effectiveness depended on fighting together as a team. Lose too many members and they wouldn’t have the numbers to field a fighting force against the wasps.
A male in their midst was a potential problem. A man could cause a division to form among the other co-wives. He would create feelings of jealousy and anger when they needed to be coherent. They were supposed to be married to the emperor, but the reality of their status involved eight young women in close quarters with a young man in their midst.
The birth control medication was used up. Their menstrual cycles were running in conjunction from the confinement they shared and that caused enough trouble. But ovulation was nothing compared to the damage two or more women fighting over one man would create if she let it get out of control.
“Can’t you just send me to another ship?” Seth asked her. He was wrapped in a robe and able to move about the infirmary, but not much else. He wasn’t acting sexually aggressive, but Shakti knew from her years of work as a pleasure girl that the testosterone could trigger him any minute. She could feel the pheromones in the air and these weren’t the kind created by the wasps.
“No. You were too ill to transfer before we folded space. The autodoc told us you had an eighty percent fatality chance if you were moved. I don’t like those odds and we won’t be responsible for the death of an innocent man.”
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