“They’re angling for the atmosphere,” Nuko said.
“Can we tell if they have weapons in that power mess they’ve cobbled together?”
“Maybe,” Ammo shrugged. “But I don’t see anything that looks hot other than engines and life support.”
“Close on them,” he said. “Make it look like we’re aiming to push an attack run.” He nodded for Ammo to reopen the audio.
“Let’s make this clear chief engineer whatever your name is, I can tell you’ve got someone standing beside you with something pointy digging into your ribs,” Ethan said. “I want to cut to the point, so maybe you should put him on.”
“There’s nobody here but crew,” he said as stress squeezed his eggs enough to push his voice up almost a half octave.
“Well if nobody’s listening, you won’t care that we know what Jetaar’s doing and why he’s looking to kidnap scientists.”
There was a long pause before someone else came on the comm. “I’m not sure what you think you know, but whoever you are, you’re awfully sure of yourself.”
“Like I said before, this is Captain Ethan Walker of the Olympus Dawn. Does that ring any bells for you?”
“No.”
“Of course not, I’m sure Jetaar doesn’t like to advertise to his underlings who it was that handed his ass to him,” he said, forcing a dry chuckle into his voice for effect.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about, but you sound delusional.”
Quinn and their prisoner came through the door. Leo’s legs hung a foot above the floor before he crashed into a heap on the edge of the riser.
“See if they’ll let us open a visual channel,” the captain said. Ammo punched in the command and the main screen lit up. A square monolithic lump of human flesh with a long scar across his cheek appeared. Two equally featureless mountains of organic matter stood behind him, holding what was probably the engineer between them.
“Crap, does Jetaar get his people from central casting?” Walker asked, glancing at Ammo and shrugging.
“Let me ask you a question, Tiny. Do you recognize the window washer?” Quinn picked him up and held him out like a toy. The man didn’t react, but the engineer did.
He nodded, once before one of the men backhanded him out of the optic range.
“Not him either? Well, he used to work for your boss too, but it doesn’t matter because you’ve got about thirty seconds before we jump in on your ass and open fire.”
“The Olympus Dawn is a cargo barge,” Tiny said. “You’re not that scary.”
“Maybe not, but the last time we had words with some of your friends, it didn’t go so well for Jetaar and his ship. Maybe you need to consider how this will go. Twenty-five seconds.”
“You’re bluffing,” Tiny said.
“I’m betting you know better.” He gestured for Ammo to mute the comm again. “Open the hangar deck slowly but keep the lights down. Keep closing.”
Swallowing hard Nuko punched in the command.
Ethan nodded to reopen the audio. “I’m also betting you’ve got your mid-decks stuffed full of muscle and you’re looking to get them in the dust down there so you can gather more brains for your boss’s special project. You don’t care about hauling off loot or you’d have brought freighters. You’re looking for a bigger prize. Twenty seconds.”
Tiny glanced off to the side and nodded at someone off screen.
“You best hadn’t be wasting breath on talking at me, you’ve got to confirm how Jetaar got his scrotum hammered.”
Silence.
“Ten seconds,” Ethan said. The screen went dark.
“They’re powering up their coils,” Ammo said.
Nuko made a strange squeak as she dropped her head into her hands. “Frakking iron eggs.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ethan stood up and stepped around behind his chair, gripping the seat back to steady himself on his suddenly rubber legs.
“That was brilliant!” Ammo jumped up to give him what might have become an enthusiastic congratulatory squeeze.
He glanced at her and the adrenaline raging through his system cranked his expression to full on cannon fire. She froze in mid-motion.
“That was luck,” he said, his voice no more than a dry rasp.
“Maybe there was some of that in it, but you played it perfectly,” she said, sitting back down in the engineer’s seat and giving him his space.
“Ethan, are you alright?” Nuko asked, twisting in her seat and looking up at him with concern.
“I will be,” he whispered, trying to give her a reassuring wink. “Just pay attention to what they’re doing and give me a minute to breathe through this.”
“Cap’n, what do you want me to do with little Leo here?” Quinn asked, startling him. He’d forgotten that the handler still had the prisoner on the ConDeck. He felt like his whole universe had collapsed as the adrenaline let-down sucked the reality out of his world.
“Chain him down somewhere safe and report to Angel. She should be with Kaycee,” he said. “I’m afraid next time they come back, they won’t bluff so easily.”
“You don’t have the guns anymore?” the window washer gasped.
“He didn’t need them,” Quinn said, grinning and winking at the captain. “He’s got balls bigger than mine. Wanna find out what that means?” The inarticulate sound of terror that gurgled somewhere inside of Leo’s throat was more than enough of an answer.
I’m not the only one that knows how to run a bluff, Ethan thought as he watched the handler pick the prisoner up and haul him away.
“Frak, I hope he was kidding.” He chuckled as the door closed behind them. “He was kidding, wasn’t he?”
Ammo shrugged and shook her head at the same time. “Dono.”
“Boss, I don’t know what you did up there, but Makhbar’s gone apoplectic,” Rene said over the comm. “I think you’re going to have to deal with this. He’s screaming for you and threatening me with bodily harm if I don’t put you on.”
“Let him scream a few minutes,” he said, “Maybe he’ll calm down a little first.”
Ammo laughed. “Not likely.”
“Tough. Keep the jamming on him until we know that ship can’t intercept our conversation. Once they go to cruise, I’ll talk to him.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be much of a conversation,” he said. “His inarticulate raging seems to be getting worse the longer he waits. What did you do to him?”
“He wouldn’t shut up over an open channel, so we did what we had to in order to chase the black hats away,” Ethan said. “Ammo jammed up his communications.”
“That explains why he’s pounding me over their ground comm system,” Rene said. He’s wanting me to tell you… well, nevermind, I won’t repeat that. It would lose something in translation.”
“We need to keep open comm to a minimum since they can monitor us until they jump to cruise,” Nuko said. “They’re still sub-light.”
“I anticipated the need for secure comm and have enabled a side-band through my automech teleop link. It is encrypted and is what you are utilizing now,” Marti said. “I have sufficient bandwidth to extend a visual conference channel to the local communications system on the surface.”
“Don’t you need it to run your skinsuit?” he asked.
“Negative. I can put my body in standby mode as we have completed all but the last artillery link-up. Since we have deployed the hardware to the last location, I am no longer essential to accomplishing the task.”
“Do it,” Ethan said.
“It will take at least a minute,” Marti said. “Dr. Makhbar is currently on the surface in his mobile conference center rover. They need to stop and locate a grid node to hook up. I have expressed that broadcast communications will remain offline until there is no risk of being monitored.”
“Rene I’d like you to be part of this,” the captain said.
“Do I have to? I’m almost done here boss and I do
n’t want to not get finished because I’m sucked into yammering with that idiot,” he said. “To be honest, I’ve already put up with him for about all I can stomach.”
“Just maintain an audio link and keep working then,” he said. “We’ll try to handle it from here.”
“Before he comes online,” Ammo said. “Let him know you’ve got no time for his shit. Push back as hard as he pushes, and he’ll realize he’s not going to batter you into submission. No matter how hard he shoves, shove back.”
“That’s what you said before,” he said, frowning.
“Yah, but now we don’t have time for it,” she said. “Do whatever you have to do to end it decisively. Insult him if you have to.”
“Link established, stand by for visual,” Marti announced.
Ethan took a deep breath and crossing his arms, leaned on the top of the back of his chair, and waited for the storm to start.
“Captain Walker, I will not be ordered around by your underling AA system,” Makhbar said even before his face materialized on the screen. “How dare you? I have never in my entire life had anyone—”
“You might be paying the bills, but you lack the common sense of a sea slug,” Ethan said, keeping his tone flat. He caught Ammo nodding out of his peripheral vision.
“You will not speak to me that way,” Makhbar snarled, punctuating his words with a slap of his hand on the tabletop in front of him.
Ethan smiled. “I will speak to you however the frak I want. I’m not your slave, and I don’t have to put up with that arrogant noise that keeps roaring out of your face hole.” He stepped around his seat and sat down.
“Maybe if someone who wasn’t intimidated by your net worth had explained how the universe works, you’d have some clue how lucky you just got,” he said.
Makhbar sputtered, trying to assemble a defense against the notion that Ethan wasn’t buying his divine right to hold the high ground. “Luck has no place in science,” he finally managed. “Your random act—”
“Saved your ass. For the moment,” he said. “But you’re proving my point as you waste time trying to beat me into submission when your entire future might be measured in minutes. They will be back and you’re clinging to a hollow shell of outrage.”
“Captain Walker, you do not understand who you are talking to,” Makhbar said.
“I don’t care what you think of your own importance. Right now, I’m trying to get my job done. All you’ve done so far is pull my ass every way but sidewise. I’m done with it,” he said.
“Alaran, he’s right,” Dr. Tegan said. She was sitting beside him in his rover conference room. Her voice was audible, but she wasn’t visible on the screen. “You need to let him do his job and trust that he will get it done.”
“I barely know this man and you expect me to trust him?” he asked, turning to face her. The optic widened as the comm’s AI controller included her in the conversation automatically.
“He’s risked his life—”
“Twice,” Ammo added.
She nodded, glancing at the screen. “Twice ... to drive off who knows what kind of dangerous people and you sound petty trying to protect your ego.”
He opened his mouth to send her a flaming retort, but she leveled a mother-class hairy eyeball at him and he stopped mid-breath. Even Ethan flinched.
“You should be thankful he’s tried to help at all,” she said. “Perhaps you should consider listening to him and not berating him for the fact that he’s lost his patience with you.”
Makhbar stared at her for several seconds before he nodded. When he looked back at the screen, he cleared his voice and looked down at the back of his hands in front of him like a repentant child. “I do apologize, Captain Walker. I am not accustomed to letting others make decisions on my behalf. In my experience there are few who have an understanding of the responsibilities of leadership. From here forward I will do my best to keep my ego in check.”
“I think you just made history,” Ammo whispered. Her face showed something barely short of total shock.
“What do you think we should do now?” Dr. Tegan asked.
“Yes, of course, what do you think is our best course of action?” Makhbar echoed.
“We’re looking at a few hours before the power comes back on down there,” Ethan said.
“Two hours, thirty-nine minutes.” Marti offered.
“And there’s no guarantee that the guns will come up the instant the planets get line of sight on each other either,” Rene added. He was breathing heavy over the audio while he worked with the artillery squads to finish the hardware tie-in.
“I’d say you need to leave, but it’s too late for that now,” the captain said.
“There is too much at stake here,” the archaeologist said.
“Like lives?” Ethan asked, closing his eyes and letting out another breath. He knew he had a lot of adrenaline yet to swallow, so he had to mind his words to give room for Makhbar’s own retreat. “It’s irrelevant now.”
“What about hiding?” Dr. Tegan asked. “There are sub surface interconnects all over the city.”
“That might keep you safe for a while.” The captain nodded. “Even if they send down troops to chase you out, that will take some time.”
“All we need to do is delay until the power comes back up,” Rene said. “I’m sure we’ll have the juice for the guns, it’s just a matter of how long it takes.”
“We could move non-essential personnel into the tunnels now,” Makhbar said. The frown on his face told Ethan that Ammo was right. He hated the idea of retreating.
“I’d say move anyone that can’t use a gun, or isn’t involved in getting the artillery operational, out of the line of fire,” the captain said, nodding.
“I should stay and direct the operations,” the archaeologist said.
“No. Really you shouldn’t,” Dr. Tegan said. “We’ve got eighty-two security people and the two artillery squads.”
“Depending on what they bring on the next wave, that might give them a fair ground fight,” Ammo said. “It didn’t look like they had room for more than a hundred or so on the Saknussemm.
“If they bring the Blackwing too it probably won’t be carrying that many either,” Ethan said. “With the home-square advantage, you might hold them off for a long time.”
“I should still be part of the fight,” Makhbar insisted.
“Alaran, you have to stay out of the way and let them do their job. If what Leonard Stahl said is correct, you personally might be a bigger target than any of us.” Dr. Tegan reached out to lay a hand on his forearm and he jerked it back.
Ethan could tell she was appealing to his ego in order to leave him with no argument. Fortunately, it seemed to be working. “You should lead your people into the tunnels and wait it out,” he added, trying to reinforce her words.
“What will you be doing?” Makhbar asked, his tone edging back toward its usual insolence.
“It depends on when they show back up,” he said. “If they get here before the armaments are online, I’ll do my frakking best to pull off another Miracle Mike and slow them down.”
“If we can get him looking in our direction, maybe they’ll take some time to think it over before they land,” Nuko said. “Not that I like that idea much.”
“We can’t bluff again,” Ammo said. “The odds of it working twice are slim.”
“If we’d had to lay our chips on the table after the hand, then I’d agree,” Ethan said. “But they didn’t call us, so they don’t know we aren’t packing the guns we said we had.”
“The longer you can keep them talking, the more of their people will still be on the ship when the artillery opens up on them,” Makhbar said.
“The goal needs to be to drive them off. Give them a bloody nose so they won’t come back looking for another fight,” Ammo said. “Pirates like easy targets, so you want to make sure you are a hard target, without turning it into a grudge match.”
“You�
�re saying we should let them walk away?” Dr. Tegan asked.
“It’s a balancing act,” Ammo explained. “If you show them that it’s too expensive to try again, they’ll leave you alone, but if you pound them to death, they’ll keep coming back until they eventually overwhelm you. You have to educate them that you aren’t worth the cost.”
“That’s absurd,” Makhbar said.
“It’s the way pirates have operated for a thousand years,” she said. “They have lots of friends and never sleep. The only way you’ll ever have peace is if you don’t turn it into a blood feud.”
“I understand,” he said. “I concede to your point.”
“You need to remember that if Jetaar brings the Blackwing when he comes back, he’s got guns that can reach the surface too,” Ethan said. “Over playing it could turn this into a punching party.”
Makhbar shook his head. “As Leonard Stahl pointed out they are after us so they can exploit our knowledge. Given this, they are unlikely to bomb us from orbit. It would be counterproductive.”
“He’s right,” Nuko said. “They’ve become their own human shield.”
“That assumes Jetaar is not in it for revenge,” Rene said. “We don’t know that he isn’t just looking to finish the fight.”
“If that’s the case, he’s going to be looking at us first,” the captain said. “That might give us a tactical edge.”
“Sending the Saknussemm in says he still looks to take prisoners, at least until the last round. To me that sounds like he’s not driven by his passions so far,” Ammo said.
“Even if he doesn’t want to play gentle to reduce collateral damage, the artillery is designed to shoot through an atmosphere,” the engineer added. “Lasers are more of an anti-ship weapon and won’t be anywhere near as effective through a gas blanket.”
“He had two ion cannons on the front,” Nuko said. “Those could still do some damage, if he gets a shot off.”
“So, we don’t let him,” Ethan said. “Leave that to me.”
“Why don’t I like how that sounds?” Nuko said.
“Neither do I,” he whispered. Neither do I.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Wings of Earth- Season One Page 35