Janghu was far from the pirate Marny had expected to see. With minimal jewelry in his wattle and a military-styled uniform, his professional image was a surprise.
"Captain Janghu, you're firing on an Abasi-flagged ship in Abasi space," Marny said. "You will desist immediately or risk destruction of your fleet."
"Hornblower, by order of Strix command," he started, "you are ordered to cease hostilities, heave-to, and prepare to be boarded."
"Not going to happen," Marny answered. "We have been served no writ and have broken no laws. Your actions violate Abasi maritime law."
A fresh volley of missiles launched from Janghu's frigate.
"You have violated Strix protocols by firing on my ships," Janghu replied. "Your actions are in and of themselves a violation of regional ordinance 1293.2, punishable by imprisonment and death."
Marny muted the comm and grimaced as the missiles streaked toward Hornblower. The Strix were a particularly nasty owlish-looking sentient species that had somehow wormed their way into a position of regional power within the Confederation of Planets. It had been the Strix that had seized Intrepid when they'd first arrived in the Tamu system and Marny knew they were in for trouble if this recalcitrant species was involved.
"Missiles aloft. Firing solution on frigate achieved," Martinez relayed critical information as a new timer popped up. So far damage assessments showed they'd taken moderate damage to the hull.
"Nick, find that ordinance," Marny ordered.
"It's brand-new," Nick said. "Strix used a parliamentarian trick to jam through a law that revokes human participation in the Confederation. We've been branded as outlaws."
"Brand new?" Marny asked.
"Yeah, suspiciously created about the time we got word from Liam that they'd located the Piscivoru," Nick said. "I reached out to Abasi, but the patrol that's coming to our aid can't answer and are referring us to a legal arbitrator on Abasi Prime."
Marny watched as Martinez's gunnery crew missed both missiles fired from the frigate. She shook her head as he once again announced the requirement to brace.
"Two-fifties on my mark," Marny said, then unmuted the comms. "Janghu, stand down. We do not recognize this unlawful ordinance. If you persist, I'll put you down."
"With those seventy-fives? Surely you know my armor can withstand your fire long enough for us to gain safe distance," he answered haughtily. "The Strix wish me to communicate their delight at your introduction of the Privateer statute. Just as you, we sail under a Letter of Marque and I'll be delighted to nip at your heels until we are able to claim your ship as our prize. Don't worry, though, we'll make your deaths quick."
"Fire," Marny said, with resolve.
Hornblower's bow bucked as twin 250mm cannons released their powerful charges, expelling fiery gasses into space behind their six-hundred-kilogram projectiles. At twenty-eight hundred meters per second, the rounds would take almost six seconds to reach their mark.
For a moment, Janghu's rendered bust remained on the holo. The gloating look transformed when he recognized what was happening. He spat out orders for evasive maneuvers. As the two rounds impacted his ship, a look of hatred crossed his face and the image blinked out. For a moment, the ship seemed to swell before it exploded, hurling a wave of debris in every direction.
"Give me status on those remaining ships," Marny snapped, knowing that it would be tempting for a rookie gunnery crew to celebrate their success instead of moving on to the next.
"Both cutters are headed out," Walser answered. "Looks like the sloop lost power, though. They're hailing us."
"On comms," Marny replied.
A defeated looking Pogona male appeared on a two-dimensional screen. "We humbly surrender. Please do not destroy our ship."
"You will transfer command of your ship to Loose Nuts and move to your cargo hold," Marny answered. "Any individual who remains armed will be drifted. Will you comply?"
"Yes," the sloop's captain answered.
"Gunnery Sergeant, I need you to take a squad of Marines and board that sloop," Marny said, leaving the comms open. "Your orders are to strip and release into space any prisoner who so much as carries a butter knife. Do you copy?"
"Aye, aye, Captain," Gunnery Sergeant Martinez answered. "I'll see to it personally."
Marny cut comms and stood up from the captain's chair. She was only a few days post-partum and even with the nanobots swimming around in her system, the fight had depleted most of her energy. Her leg wobbled, but she caught it well before anyone else could see her weakness.
Nick briskly appeared at her side, suggesting that maybe she hadn’t been quick enough after all.
"Ada?" Marny prompted, nodding to the still flamboyantly dressed pilot.
"Thanks for your help with that, Captain." Ada's smile was as quick as her understanding. "If you don't mind, I'd like to finish out my shift."
"Chair is yours," Marny answered, resting a hand heavily on Nick's shoulder as the two of them exited the bridge and walked down the short hallway to the captain's quarters. The scene they found behind the door was filled with chaos. Flaer danced about while holding a very angry Little Pete who cried uncontrollably in her arms.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Nick asked, once they were inside. "That took a lot out of you. You need rest."
Marny ignored Nick, having ears only for Peter's cries. Scooping up the hot little ball of anger from Flaer's chest, Marny cooed as she sat down on a chair and provided comfort in a way mothers had for as long as humans had lived. With the greedy little piglet distracted, she looked back to Nick who was having difficulty trying to figure out what he should do next.
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," Marny said. "I believe you're questioning if it is a good idea that I am captain, not whether rescuing your best friend is a good idea. Or, whether having Peter was a good idea."
Nick's eyebrows shot up. Marny had been short with him more often than he was used to for the last few months and it hadn't gotten better with Peter's birth. The change in her behavior made him feel insecure in their relationship, but he knew starting a family was a lot of adjustment for them both.
"Yes," he answered. "You're just being pulled in so many directions."
"Welcome to motherhood, Nick," she answered, still peeved.
"Ada could have handled that," Nick said. "You just had a baby, for Jupiter's sake."
"Ada is an extremely talented large-ship pilot but has little command experience in battle. Dolynne Brown is a good pilot but needs experience with a ship the size of Hornblower. Raul Martinez's crew missed every missile except one," Marny said. "Walser and Ada missed sending out an emergency beacon to Abasi. If you hadn't come up, it wouldn’t have happened."
"Semper could have sat in the seat and defeated that fleet," Nick said, digging his hole deeper.
Peter made smacking sounds as Marny switched him from one side to the other. "No child could be this hungry," she whispered, smoothing his hair. He grunted in satisfaction.
"How do you know how to do that?" Nick asked, shaking his head.
"Don't change the subject," Marny prompted. "You're right. Hornblower outgunned an overconfident fleet full of small ships. That's not the point. That battle was a gimmee and I got to learn a lot about my crew."
"Like?"
"Engineering was sandbagging," she said. "When Ada cussed 'em out, they miraculously found an additional ten percent."
"Because they're brilliant," Nick said.
"What if we'd had that ten percent from the get-go? Maybe we'd have missed that first missile strike," Marny said. "And Raul's crew is in need of training. It's not unexpected, but now I know what to drill them on. Battles aren't won in the moment, Nick, they're won because of the training of the crew and their officers."
"Captain, we're about to board," Martinez's voice cut through on comms.
Marny allowed the channel to remain muted for a moment. "As far as this goes," she gestured to Peter who was drifting off at
the helm, only to wake, resume duty and fall asleep again, "these things pretty well take care of themselves. Look. It's going to take me a bit to recover my stamina, but don't misunderstand how devoted I am to this mission. I need you on my side, Nicholas James. Can I count on you?"
Nick blinked fast, wondering how the conversation had turned into a question of loyalty. At lightspeed, he replayed the last few minutes in his mind. He knew he was only trying to protect her, but could grudgingly understand why she felt he wasn't giving her enough room to do what she needed to do.
"He just makes everything so confusing," Nick said, looking at the sleeping baby laying against her breast. "I want to protect him and you with everything I have."
Marny smiled as the tension left Nick’s face. Bundling Peter up, she gently handed the baby to Nick. "I wouldn't want it any other way, my little man," Marny answered. "Just make sure you leave me enough room to be me."
Nick nodded. "I will," he whispered.
Marny stood, kissed Peter on the forehead and stepped from the room into the hallway. "Martinez, go," she ordered while pulling up eight panels on her HUD that showed each Marine's forward view.
Wordlessly, Martinez signaled for the Marines to breach the airlock. Where the group hadn't been overly effective handling the ship's guns, they more than made up for it in their tactical insertion. Breaking into two, four-man teams they flowed forward and aft as they hit the junction at midship. Carefully sweeping each room, the forward team reached the sloop's small bridge at the same time the aft team reached the cargo hold where six crew sat on their knees with hands raised submissively.
The two teams simultaneously searched the surrendering crew and finished checking the ship's tween deck for surprises, while Martinez assigned a man to connect to the ship's computer system and verify the system's statuses.
"Captain, we have a couple of problems," he finally said, conferring with his team leads.
"What do you have, Sergeant?" Marny asked.
"They blew the ship's systems," he answered. "Nothing but atmo and heat left on this bird."
"Not a big surprise. You said a couple," Marny prompted.
"We found a knife on one of the crew," he said. "She's saying she forgot about it, but it was back-strapped beneath what's basically an athletic bra. What do you want me to do?"
"I'll be right there," Marny said, not bothering to check with Nick as she made her way to the elevator that would bring her to the fourth deck. She preferred traversing this deck as it had been left mostly empty during the ship's reconstruction. As such, she could move quickly using her grav-suit to propel her forward or aft.
"Ada, I'm EVA, headed over to the captured sloop," Marny said.
"Copy, Marny."
She sailed to the sloop and cycled through the airlock.
"Captain on the deck," the first Marine she ran into announced, snapping to attention.
"As you were, Marine," Marny said, walking purposefully to the cargo hold.
"Captain?" Martinez queried as she entered.
"Is this her?" Marny asked, gesturing to a Pogona female who had been separated from the group and sat on her knees with arms tied behind her back.
"It is," Martinez answered, handing her the sharp blade his team had recovered.
"I hate maiden voyages," Marny said, shaking her head.
"How's that?"
"Trust me, we'll get to that later," Marny said. "But this one's on me. I should never have made a threat I wasn't willing to follow through on."
"Pathetic," the Pogona female spat.
Marny walked around behind the woman still holding the blade Martinez had handed to her.
"What are you doing?" the female asked, her bravado slipping away. "You can't hurt me. It's a crime to hurt a prisoner."
Marny leaned down and used the blade to break the binding around the Pogona's wrists and ankles.
"I'm giving you your blade back," Marny said, tossing the knife onto the deck in front of the woman. "What you do with it is your business."
"Do I look stupid?" the Pogona asked. "I pick up that blade and you have your soldier shoot me. I won't do it."
"No. Purely a challenge," Marny answered. "I'm giving you a chance to use that weapon you were going to smuggle onto my ship. Marines, I order you not to come to my aid. If this woman kills me, take her as prisoner, but let it be known that it was my choice to allow her to have this blade in a fair fight."
"Ma'am," Martinez said, warning in his voice. "We won't disobey a direct order. Don't do this. You've just had a baby."
Marny rolled her eyes. She'd grown weary of the apparent weakness childbearing brought to a woman. "It's an order, Martinez," she said dryly and looked back to the Pogona. "Your move, lizard chin."
The Pogona female, seeing the opportunity, hesitantly picked up the blade and stepped back.
"Do Pogona have the saying 'kill two birds with one stone?'" Marny asked, holding her hands out in front defensively, circling away from her advancing adversary.
"No," the female answered. "But it is not a difficult idiom to understand. You kill me, you solve another problem, also."
"Too literal," Marny said, slapping away the Pogona's attempted jab with the knife and bouncing on the balls of her feet. The motion thrilled her and she breathed deeply, enjoying the clarity of a clean fight. "Most of the time no killing is involved, but you have the right idea. One action will solve two problems."
The Pogona tipped her head back sharply, acknowledging the answer as she dipped in for another strike. "I understand the problem you have with me," she said, grunting as Marny backhanded her stomach and spun out of the way, kicking off the Pogona's butt and pushing them apart. "But what is the other issue?"
"Do Pogona males think females are weak after childbirth?"
The Pogona female nodded her head sympathetically, causing the jewelry beneath her chin to clink together. "Pogona males believe Pogona females are weak all of the time."
Marny grinned. She was actually starting to like the saucy female.
"I just had a child a few days ago. It's like they all believe I had some wasting disease," Marny lamented.
"You are quite fast," the Pogona acknowledged. "I would not like to fight you at your peak."
Marny chuckled as the female dove forward, sneakily timing a lunge with her easy conversation. It was exactly what Marny had expected. With long-honed reflexes, she snapped out her hand, bashing curled knuckles into the Pogona's wrist and dislodging the knife. In a single fluid move, Marny turned and brought her elbow back into the Pogona’s face, knocking her to the floor, unconscious.
Chapter 7
Staying Present
I scanned the volcanic rocky terrain. It seemed familiar, but like a word that eluded one’s recall, the location evaded my recollection. In front of me, a field full of slaughtered Kroerak hatchlings writhed somewhere between life and death – no doubt my doing. Kameldeep. The name of the planet filtered into my subconscious. It was the planet where we'd captured the Kroerak cruiser and taken Hornblower from the Pogona, although Hornblower had been named Sangilak at the time.
Something in Kameldeep's light blue sky caught my attention — a flicker of purple. As soon as I turned toward the flash, my view zoomed impossibly, out into space and away from the planet. I saw the cosmic anomaly we generally referred to as a wormhole. Each wormhole had a different feel to it and I instinctively knew I'd never been through this entrance.
With no control of my own, I bumped through the wormhole and entered a system for which I had no name. My body zoomed across space and my focus turned toward a new wormhole. In rapid succession, I passed through wormhole after wormhole, finally slowing after what must have been twenty transitions. I came to a stop in front of a particularly brilliant wormhole with a golden-blue light show surrounding the entrance.
A deep sense of foreboding filled me as I studied the entrance. With a flash of lightning, a single super-sized Kroerak battleship transitioned. My hear
t raced uncontrollably as the massive vessel slowly turned and lumbered in my direction. A moment later three more ships appeared, followed by five more, and then another ten. The waves of transitioning ships continued until I lost count. I turned to watch the battleship, its great weapon gathering power. A single, brilliant red targeting beam pierced my eye and my head erupted with pain as the beam's power intensified and the sound of screaming filled my ears.
"Liam!" Tabby's voice, which I suddenly realized I'd been ignoring, finally broke through my subconscious and I startled awake to the awful screeching of metal on metal.
Slamming my hands on my ears, I glanced wildly in my attempt to escape the Kroerak battleship. As reality sank in, I realized we were in the Piscivoru warehouse beneath the ancient bunker. Forcing my hands back to my sides, I heard more screeching and the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of a heavy-track machine rolling across the warehouse floor.
"What the frak is going on?" I asked, trying to calm myself as Tabby steadied me.
"You were having a bad dream," she replied. "And I think someone broke one of the dirt movers."
Since Gaylon Brighton was neither water tight, nor remotely safe from the possibility of a wandering Kroerak warrior, Tabby and I had moved our mattress between two rows of the high shelving in the warehouse. The privacy screen we'd constructed worked well for a visual block, but did nothing to block sound.
Patting Tabby's arm, I convinced her I wasn't about to jump up and run into a wall or do anything else crazy. "Holy shite, but that's loud. Let me go fix this."
Tabby released me and allowed me to push through the fabric screen. Morning light streamed through an open door onto the warehouse floor and I discovered the source of the awful racket. Twenty meters away, the dirt mover Sklisk had so proudly driven thirty kilometers south to the city's defensive installation now limped across the floor, dragging behind it a battered bucket.
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