by Chris Hechtl
“Well,” Shelby felt a knife twist in her. The girl had made her bed but had spent months trying to correct her error. “You might get a spacer position. Lying about your past could get your foot in the door, but it could get you killed. Coming out about it might be good since you'd be up front, but it could get you a lot of heartache. But I can see you may be getting a ship posting. There are civilian ships hurting for experienced personnel. Start at the bottom and you might work your way back up the ladder.”
Miley bit her lip and then nodded. “And option three?”
“Option three is you enlist.”
Miley's eyes went wide in surprise at that idea. “I can do that? Aren't I a convicted felon?”
“Yes, but the pardon clears your record. According to Lieutenant Black, that option is now on the table. You could try to get into any of the branches of the military or a local space guard or militia.”
Miley nodded. “Navy,” she said softly.
“I expected as much,” Shelby replied with a brief tight-lipped smile. “You'd have to start off at the bottom, most likely enlisted. You might be able to mustang to officer someday. But, I've got to warn you, it's a long hard road. People are going to be suspicious of you for years. You're going to have to buckle down and get the job done despite that.”
Miley bit her lip again, ducked her head and inhaled and exhaled. But finally she straightened her shoulders and looked up directly into Shelby's eyes. “Sign me up, ma'am.”
<()>^<()>
Tortuga
Lieutenant Fixer was a tired bug, but she felt like they were finally getting somewhere. The survey of the star system was still far from complete no matter what some would say. Lightening Strike had turned up a half a dozen additional pirate caches in her database crunching. Only one had been booby trapped. That meant there might be more.
Every single warship frame had been booby trapped. That had been annoying. Two had been particular tough nuts to crack. They'd ended up dissolving the damn things with nanotech.
According to scuttlebutt from the prisoners, ships would cache some material in Tortuga or elsewhere. Most of it was elsewhere since there was no honor among thieves. That meant there could be megatons of material stashed all over the sector.
Her antennas twitched. If that pattern held true in every sector, there could be caches all over the galaxy. She was curious as to why they hadn't heard about this before. She put an inquiry to Lieutenant Prometheus to ask if it had come up in the enemy's captured databases.
The pirates had hauled an impressive amount of material to the star system. They were like magpies, collecting anything shiny. It made her wonder what they'd hauled off with them when they'd abandoned the star system.
<()>^<()>
Ayumu checked the improvised brig module over carefully. He scrutinized every weld and every sunken fastener. They had used star-shaped fasteners that wouldn't be able to come out without the proper tool.
He was working on a freighter that had one hold turned into an improvised brig. The prisoners from the captured destroyer were to be transported back to the capital on the prize ship. He wanted to make sure he got it right and that they couldn't find some way to escape or harm the crew.
He'd already found out through the chief that after he signed off on the project it would be carefully inspected by Prometheus's master-at-arms and then stocked with the prisoners for the journey.
Everything looked good though. He tried a few of the fasteners and couldn't get his fingernails around them. Nothing was out of place, no way to knock a bar loose from the welded racks to use as a blunt force weapon. The head was secure too.
One thing he was certain of, he was glad he wasn't going to be traveling in the Spartan brig.
Chapter 49
Dead Man's Hand
Zeng He was at full battle stations as she exited well outside the normal jump zone of the Tau-R1555 Sparkling Delta jump point. The ship had a bit of a bumpy transition; the space had a bit more debris from the Helios cloud than expected. But they came in cleanly with only node wear and no damage.
The XO oversaw the securing of the ship from jump while the captain stared intently at the plot. “Come on,” he buzzed, mandibles and antenna flicking. He realized he was making the crew nervous but he couldn't help it. He was nervous. They had a right to be nervous. They were in enemy territory.
“Sir, ship is secure from jump. Hyper wake is clearing. Should we go into stealth?”
“Not yet. Not until we're sure of what's around us. Launch our first recon drone with a course towards the enemy base as soon as we have a fix. By then we should know which way to go.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
<()>^<()>
Admiral Ishmael had assigned two destroyers to the Sparkling Delta picket duty. One light cruiser, the Black Bart, was opposite them of the jump point; she was under stealth though. Captain Ned Lowe, Captain of the Charger class destroyer, Picador had command of the destroyer division by age and sheer willpower of the captains involved. His bridge watch immediately sent an alert in while the XO and senior officers were still coming to the bridge.
Both ships were well aware that they were the pointy tip of the spear for a reason; their ships were fast but also expendable. That didn't make them interested in taking any more chances than they had to.
Both captains tended to talk a good game though, and the bonus the admiral had offered had paid the bills for a while. But the duty was a boring one. They had a week and two days before their duty shift ended and two privateers took over. But apparently, their luck had given out.
That had ended abruptly with their unexpected visitor. “The intruder is fifteen million kilometers out from the center of the jump zone, on a heading of two degrees by plus fifty-six degrees.”
“So, she's not where she's supposed to be,” Captain Lowe growled. “Either her crew fracked up or we've got a problem.”
“Aye,” the XO said, looking worried.
“Steady, number one. Let's see what we can see but send an update to the admiral.”
“Aye aye. Update the admiral, aye, sir.”
“No IFF?”
“No, sir.”
“Of course not. That would be too much to hope for,” the captain sighed. “My question is, is it Hochi frackin' around or did he screwup?”
The XO shrugged helplessly when the captain looked at him.
“Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought,” the captain said, eyes returning to the plot.
<()>^<()>
“We've got two tin cans twenty-one million kilometers from us on a heading of zero by down fifty-seven degrees,” CIC reported. “They are too far out to get a solid class at this time,” the rating said apologetically.
“No one else?”
“Not that we can see. There might be one or two more ships lurking in stealth, sir.”
“Fine.”
“Labeling the destroyers Tango One and Two,” the TAO intoned.
“Status change!” We're getting IFF challenges from Tango One. They are moving. Gravitronics say they have shifted position.”
“Understood. Guns, should we give them a surprise or hold off?”
“I'd say hold off. If we give them our best Sunday punch, we won't have it later,” the TAO stated.
“Understood. Launch recon drones then and then we'll go with rabbit two,” the captain stated.
“Launch recon drones and then implement rabbit two, aye, sir,” the TAO said in unison with the XO, bosun, and ship's A.I.
The captain signaled first-degree amusement. “I love it when we're all on the same page.” That earned a chuckle from the bridge watch.
<()>^<()>
“Intruder is moving out. Correction, we now have three tracks,” CIC reported, sounding annoyed. “Damn they've got powerful decoys! They've got to be decoys, right?”
The captain pursed his lips in annoyance at overhearing the chatter. He had come to the same conclusion. It didn't bode well for the ship
being a friendly.
“All three tracks are fading into stealth. We have a last known location and projected heading,” CIC reported, clearly frustrated with the situation.
The captain studied the plot with the blinking icons and blinking dotted lines of a projected course. All of them were away from his ship. That was the last clue he needed to verify what he already knew.
“Comm, alert the admiral the intruder is most definitely a hostile,” he intoned flatly.
<()>^<()>
Admiral Ishmael sat down in the barber's chair and chuffed at Joe the barber as the Neochimp teased him about getting a perm. “Just a trim, get rid of the dead ends. Nothing fancy and no bows. The girls might like it but I certainly won't,” the lion growled.
“Just a trim nothing adventurous, right, gotcha,” the chimp said, smacking his hands together and rubbing them.
He started in with scissors, snipping and combing. The Neocat closed his eyes and luxuriated in the pampering.
“So, going to let them go soon?”
“Who go?” the admiral growled. He got his best scuttlebutt from the chimp. Everyone talked to him.
“The lords. They are getting restless to go out hunting, even if it's in pairs,” the chimp said as his gentle fingers tipped the admiral's muzzle up to trim at his beard.
“Hurr,” the cat grumbled.
“That a maybe?”
“That's a I don't know yet. Is the grumbling bad?”
“Getting there. There is a lot of bellyaching about running low on supplies, supplies getting expensive, crews getting restless and wanting to go out. They all want to head north though, which means they'll be tripping over each other,” the chimp stated.
“Maybe you should be the admiral and not me. You figured that part out. I don't think they have yet,” Leonidas growled.
“Oh, some have. Hammer for one. Gutt is another. A couple of the others. Some want to strike out west. Gutt, if you can believe it, wants to go back south and pick behind the enemy lines.”
“Ah,” the admiral rumbled. “He would.”
“So, what are you going to do?” the chimp asked.
The cat chuffed. “That's for me to know and you lot to guess,” he said.
The chimp chuffed, patting him on the shoulder. “What is it?” he said in a sharp tone of voice as the smell of a fresh person came into the room.
The Neolion opened his eyes to look at the guard by the door. “Sorry to interrupt, Admiral, but we've got sort of a situation,” the bear stated.
“Sort of a situation? What sort of a situation?” the admiral asked, memory going back to Tortuga and that ghastly night.
“We just received an alert. I think you need to see this,” the bear said, holding out a tablet.
The admiral sat up and took the tablet. He looked at it, studying the information but shaded it from the chimp's view. No doubt the news that he'd gotten bad news would make its way around the scuttlebutt grapevine anyway, but he could at least limit what they knew.
“I'll be on the bridge in a few minutes,” the lion said, handing the tablet back. “Have Captain Baker order pursuit.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Finish up, Joe, I've got work to do,” the admiral growled, closing his eyes and sitting back once more.
“Aye aye, Admiral,” the chimp said quietly as he got back to work with his scissors and comb.
<()>^<()>
Captain Baker felt his fur rise, a sure sign he was pissed. “Here we go, again,” he swore, mouth writhing in silent curses. He didn't know if it was just a scout or real trouble. At this point he didn't really care. He just wanted to be elsewhere. He was pretty sure most of the other pirate lords were feeling the same thing.
The problem was they really didn't have any other place to go. Harlot's Dream maybe, but it was too close to the Confederation and had dick all for resources. Virgin Holes was also close to the Feds, uncomfortably close.
Which made the idea of heading north into Upsilon all the more appealing every day. The problem was it was a long journey. Jumping between sectors took a lot of supplies and fuel. They hadn't received anything from Upsilon in decades.
“Sir, we're still squaring away,” the TAO said, looking vexed. “I'm a bit out of my element,” he grumbled.
“Keep on it. There is a checklist for a reason, use it,” the captain growled as he paced the bridge.
He was still dealing with his missing XO too. Dolon had either gone AWOL or was possibly dead. Wilda wasn't saying either way nor were any of her engineers.
Given that she would normally be sulking and complaining if she hadn't caught him, it didn't bode well for the Neowolf. This was the worst time to have a hole in his chain of command too.
<()>^<()>
Captain Gutt heard the alert and sighed. “So much for Fisher,” he grumbled.
“Sir?”
“Something happened to Fisher or they outran her here,” he said with a shake of his head. “Either way, she's cat chow when the admiral gets his claws on her.”
“Oh, aye. Sir, what do you want us to do?” Squint asked.
The captain leered, a clean sign he was up to something. “Be us not pirates? And there be more of us than the one lone ship. March to the sound of the guns, mates! We be eating navy liver tonight!”
The yars from the crew were half-hearted but there.
<()>^<()>
“Admiral,” Captain Baker said, nodding courteously to the admiral as the neolion paused in the hatch.
“Admiral on the deck,” the watch said but the admiral growled as he came onto the bridge. “Status report?”
“It's definitely an enemy ship,” Kix reported, coming over to the admiral's side. “She went into stealth and is avoiding our ships.” He turned to the plot. They noted Black Corsage moving towards the jump point.
“And she got past Hochi and Fisher. Either they went around or they bailed or worse,” the TAO said in disgust.
The admiral considered that statement and then nodded once. It could be that the navy outran them but he doubted it. You didn't leave an enemy in your rear, that he'd confirmed in his studies.
“What do we do, sir? Do you want to dispatch a cruiser force to run them down?” Kix asked suggestively.
“Tempting,” the admiral said, stroking his chin gently with his claw tips. “Aye. Send Gutt and Hammer with a cruiser each. Be good training,” the admiral said, good eye twinkling. He studied the plot and then turned away. “And make it clear, I be offerin' a bounty for the first ship or ships to kill or capture the navy interloper,” he growled.
That perked the crew up.
<()>^<()>
Captain Hammer ran a hand thorough his hair and then groaned when the orders came in from Black Death. His division was to work with the Black Corsage division to go after the enemy ship, if the ships there didn't catch her first.
The thought of a reward was a nice touch, but it didn't do dick all if his ship was shot up and he was dead.
“Helm, plot a course to the jump point. Guns, coordinate with our 'partner' as well as Black Corsage and the other ships. We need to fight this navy ship smart. Trap it and kill it if we don't drive it off.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
Driving it off was the best they could hope for he thought in annoyance. If he was the enemy ship captain, he wouldn't linger overlong with four cruisers headed in his direction.
Chapter 50
Zeng He maneuvered to get clear of the two hunting destroyers easily. They fell for the bait, going for the center of the two decoys they'd sent off on tangent courses.
The decoys had matched their stealthed sensor profile perfectly. Each was programmed to go dark and remain on a ballistic course. If they had time, they'd recover them.
Most people assumed that a ship would stay in the center and send a decoy out on either flank. Captain Zeb had taken advantage of that. But their course had sent them to the far side of the jump zone. It was only when they got withi
n ten million kilometers that the ship's neutrino detectors picked up a lurking cruiser waiting on that side. She had done a good job of masking her heat and other signatures, but her neutrinos from her fusion reactors and warm fusion sublight engines gave her away.
The good news was that the two tin cans had gone after the center decoy and were too far out of support range of the pirate cruiser for the moment. The bad news was that they were fairly certain the light cruiser had a sniff of them and was closing in.
“We could program one of the decoys to flare their drive a little, draw them off of our scent,” the TAO stated.
“It might work,” the XO mused.
It became increasingly obvious though as time went on that the light cruiser wasn't going to be fooled that easily.
“She definitely has a whiff of us now. That cloud of debris we had to pass through let them know it's us,” CIC reported a shift later.
“They are oriented on us,” the TAO stated. “I don't like being hunted. They haven't gotten underway yet but we're going to pass near enough to them for them to be in a perfect ambush position. Unless we change course,” he said.
“We're in a cat and mouse situation,” the XO said, turning to the captain expectantly.
“Yeah, but the difference is, we're a mouse that has sharp teeth, and it's not wise to corner us,” the TAO growled.
“Aye. I think it's time we showed them why, Guns,” the captain replied with a hand sign of first-degree agreement. One of their mission goals was to send a message. A message to the pirates not to mess with a navy warship; you just got sorry and sore.
<()>^<()>
Captain Dumire smirked as he checked the take from the recon drones. He had three and had deployed all three in a three dimensional triangular formation with his ship being the fourth point. They had the enemy ship in that area, and his people were trying to narrow down the triangulation. As soon as they had a refined tract, he'd lock on and fire.
He had no intention of transmitting the location of the enemy ship. After all, the admiral's transmission had offered a reward. Why share it with anyone else?