The Queen's Pardon (Alexis Carew Book 6)

by J. A. Sutherland

  “And myself, Mister Dockett?”

  Dockett cleared his throat.

  Alexis watched the images unfold from aft. The timing would be entirely on Warth, when he felt he had the shot lined up properly with his mental picture of where Pullink sat. The man had a poacher’s patience for sitting in the dark, evading watchers, and taking his prey.

  Warth pulled the trigger.

  His shot burned a hole in the inner patch and took Pullink in the back of the head before Mongoose’s sensors could even react to this new hull breach.

  Alexis had the quarterdeck alarms turned off, but there was a klaxon in the engineering space. The hatches in the aft companionway sealed as air rushed out. Nabb and a few others had the hatch to the space locked open, four of them in vacsuits, but well away from the view of the two surrendered pirates there. Nabb and two others stood in full view without their helmets on so as not to alert those pirates and give the game away to Pullink.

  They all rushed in, prepared to grasp Pullink and pull him away if he’d survived the shot and made to further damage the plant, but that proved to be unnecessary even before Warth grasped the second rifle from his assistant and took a more hurried shot to be sure the job was finished.

  That one took Pullink in the back, as Warth aimed lower, thinking the pirate might duck down if he survived the first.

  He hadn’t, though, merely slumping a bit forward to rest his head against his arm where it held the laser pistol.

  “I wouldn’t say you’re averse to risk, sir,” Dockett said. “And damn me if I’ll ever make a book against you.”

  Thirty-Six

  Alexis had a comms laser laid from Mongoose to the boat remaining on Erzurum’s surface.

  It was one of the few things she preferred about operating in normal-space as opposed to darkspace, where she’d have been reduced to flashing the lights on the ship’s hull and masts to produce signals. The accumulation of dark matter in darkspace affected comms lasers much as it did those of the ship’s guns, condensing them and warping their path so as to make them an ineffective means of communication.

  Regular light was affected as well, but not so much — something to do with a laser’s coherence, as well as the density and phase of the photons involved. She didn’t fully understand it, but, then, there was a great deal about the Dark she didn’t understand.

  Kannstadt responded quickly, he had the second boat already loaded with his men and ready to lift.

  “I had thought you had these codes to retake your ship quickly,” he said. “Schnell, schnell!”

  “There was a bit more to it,” Alexis allowed, “and to convincing someone aboard to play along.”

  “But it has worked?”

  Alexis nodded. “The first and second officers were quite cooperative.”

  Kannstadt cocked his head. “But not the captain? Was he injured in taking the ship?”

  “Captain Tinkham served a purpose,” Alexis said.

  Kannstadt grinned causing Alexis to wonder at herself. It seemed the Hanoverese understood her quite well, and that bothered her. He made no more mention of it other than to ask, “The next ship is expecting us?”

  Alexis nodded again. “With a new man, Gutis, at the helm.” She spared a glance her pilot, changed, as Kannstadt was, from the clothing they’d worn through the swamps into those taken from one of the boat’s pirate occupants. “Just talk to them like a pirate, Gutis, and they’ll let you come alongside.”

  “Aye, sir —” He frowned, then narrowed his eyes. “Aarrr.”

  Alexis frowned.

  “Sorry, sir,” Gutis said, looking back to his console.

  Alexis thought they were less ready than they should be when Gutis lifted Kannstadt’s boat from Erzurum’s surface.

  She’d have preferred a fuller crew aboard Mongoose, and that of men who’d understand her commands without the elaborate coaching. On the other hand, those on the quarterdeck with her spoke English well enough — save Schwalheimer on the signals console, though he was the best she had for the job. Layland was at the helm, having come to her boat when they abandoned the ship on their approach to Erzurum, which gave her an experienced man there, and one she knew well. Tite was on the tactical console, an older man from her boat crew and one who had been a gun captain before Erzurum. The Hanoverese she had filling the crews’ ranks knew how to load a gun well enough and in normal-space that tactical console was more important than the aiming of a single gun.

  They had time, yet, to work up the crew on the sails, for they’d not be transitioning to darkspace just yet, if she could help it. There were enough ships in orbit around Erzurum for her to deal with.

  She watched Kannstadt’s boat enter orbit and shape its path for Fang.

  “Gewehrdeckel ready, kapitän,” Schwalheimer said.

  Alexis assumed that was the gundeck, as that’s what she’d asked the man to notify her of its readiness.

  “Drop us down, Layland,” she ordered when she thought it time.

  “Aye, sir.”

  Mongoose was in a high orbit, near Fang’s, the better to defend against any incoming attack. The other pirates were lower, along with the merchantmen here for the market in pirated goods.

  While she might prefer to stay where she was and support Kannstadt’s attack with Mongoose’s guns, the Hanoverese captain had no way to shut down his target’s communications as she had Mongoose’s. As soon as his men burst from the docking boat, Fang would squawk a warning like one of the Isikli farm’s geese, and Alexis planned to both prevent the other ships from responding, while also, she hoped, distract the crew of Fang at some crucial moment.

  Mongoose accelerated and dropped toward the planet. Alexis planned for a lower, faster orbit that would take her around the planet quickly enough to bring her guns to bear on those other ships. There were no gunboats in the system’s normal-space, so far as she could tell. They were all in darkspace, keeping watch for an intruder coming from there. She didn’t want a single one of these ships in orbit being able to make it to a Lagrangian point for transition to darkspace to give them a warning.

  Kannstadt would be on his own to take Fang, and then, if he was able, assist her.

  The merchantmen would be no problem, they’d be hesitant and wary of the pirates surrounding them as they took on cargo, but wouldn’t question Erzurum’s masters for fear of having their own ships taken. The two other pirates, and Fang until Kannstadt gave them something else to worry at, were a different story. Armfield and Hallows, Tinkham’s two mates, had told her, and Blackbourne confirmed, that there was no particular hierarchy to the ships in orbit, pirates being an egalitarian lot, and so each captain might do as he wished with regard to orbits or working his ship — but that didn’t mean the others might not become suspicious of her maneuvers and question them.

  “Zignal, kapitän,” Schwalheimer said.

  “This is your moment, Armfield,” Alexis told the pirate first-mate. She’d decided not to repeat the farce of having both mates at the console, choosing Armfield as the marginally more intelligent and compliant.

  The pirate glanced at the spot on the deck where his captain had fallen. There was surprisingly little blood from a burst of flechettes to the eye, but a few drops still stained the decking there.

  Armfield swallowed and nodded, then hunched over Schwalheimer’s shoulder and the console.

  “What is it, Kerry?” he asked as Schwalheimer accepted the incoming signal.

  Alexis couldn’t see the other captain’s image, staying out of sight as she was, but his voice boomed over the speakers.

  “Where’s Tinkham?”

  “Captain’s busy, you fat bugger, and no time for someone worthy, much less your ugly self,” Armfield yelled back, making Alexis jump.

  She narrowed her eyes at him and gestured with the hand that held her flechette pistol, as well as giving a pointed nod to where Nabb stood with pistol and rifle.

  “Busy? Why’s he not on the quarterdeck with
you sending that ill-made, tube of shite all about our orbits? What are you about, you shitting excuse for a man?”

  “Tinkham don’t answer to you and I don’t neither!” Armfield yelled.

  Alexis relaxed a bit and nodded to Nabb. It seemed this was simply what was expected with the captain of the other ship and not some ruse to warn him there was something amiss on Mongoose.

  “You’ll answer to my boot if I have to alter my orbit for your foolishness!”

  “You keep that bloody tub of yours out our way!” Armfield yelled back. “We’ll go where Tinkham says!”

  With that, he reached forward and cut the connection.

  “Things are not so very cordial between this Captain Kerry and your Tinkham?” Alexis asked.

  “Could say that,” Armfield allowed.

  “I see.” Alexis thought for a moment. “Layland, I’d admire it did you make this Kerry squawk a bit more in our course — laying us well for Captain Kerry’s ship —” She checked the navigation plot. “— Talon, to be our first target.”

  The helmsman grinned. “Aye, sir.”

  Layland touched the helm controls and Mongoose’s course altered so that it would intersect that of Talon, before continuing on around Erzurum to catch up with the last of the pirate ships — Alexis read the plot — Claw.

  I detect a singular lack of thought in their ships’ names.

  Layland kept their course after that so Mongoose would then close on the cluster of merchant ships, which were staying together in Erzurum’s orbit as though that offered them some protection. It wouldn’t, Alexis knew, not from the pirates and not from Mongoose.

  “Zignal, kapitän,” Schwalheimer said.

  “Ignore it.”

  “Jawohl.”

  The two ships’ courses continued to converge, Mongoose dropping down on Talon like a stooping eagle, while the pirate ship obstinately maintained its own course.

  “Zignal, kapitän,” Schwalheimer said. “From Talon still.”

  Alexis eyed the plot, watching the ever-adjusting curves of their orbit and the other ships as Layland made minute adjustments. Their path was not such that they’d be in the way of any other than Talon, so she imagined the other ships were simply watching the game of chicken with some amusement — assuming it to be a show of bravado between two captains who did not like each other very much.

  She could, if she wished, fire upon Talon at any time — every ship not behind Erzurum’s bulk was well within range of her guns in normal-space — but patience, and the distracting game she played with Talon, were more to allow Kannstadt’s boat time to reach Fang. That and to leave less time for the other ships in orbit to realize what was happening and react.

  “Boat’s near Fang,” Tite, on the tactical console, informed her.

  “Thank you, Tite. Schwalheimer, keep a close watch on general signals, if you please. I wish to know the moment Fang cries an alert.”

  “Jawohl.”

  It would take time for Kannstadt’s boat to dock and the hatch to open. Afterward, she hoped, even a few moments for the pirates, expecting drink and women, to realize that the scale-skin clothed Hanoverese were neither of those things. Every moment brought her closer to her own targets.

  “They scream, kapitän,” Schwalheimer said.

  “Now, Layland! Take us close astern!” Mongoose had closed enough on Talon, and the other ship was accelerating enough, that she could take Mongoose behind the enemy and rake her.

  “Aye, sir!”

  Mongoose spun on her axis and Layland fed more power to the engines, not stopping her motion, as that would be impossible in so short a time, but altering it so that she curved even more toward Erzurum and Talon. It took but a moment for Talon’s continued acceleration to pull the pirate ship ahead of Mongoose’s course and expose her stern.

  “Fire!” Alexis yelled.

  Thirty-Seven

  Mongoose’s gunports flew open and lasers lashed from her sides.

  They were not quite astern of Talon, still a bit off her starboard quarter and above, but the other ship’s stern was in view and in range. Mongoose’s first broadside, aimed and controlled by Tite at the tactical console, rather than the individual gunners, was on target and struck the pirate ship a massive blow to her conventional drive.

  Talon skewed and swerved as the thrust from her drive became unequal for a moment, her helmsman trying to adjust to the damage done to the drive outputs even as Mongoose rolled and turned to bring her port broadside to bear for another shot.

  “Zignal from Talon,” Schwalheimer called.

  “I imagine so,” Alexis said, nodding to Blackbourne.

  The bearded pirate sighed. He hadn’t liked this bit of her plan, less so than her actually attacking his fellows, to Alexis’ surprise.

  Schwalheimer opened the general radio circuit around Erzurum, where all the ships in orbit could broadcast in the open, rather than a ship-to-ship laser.

  The channel was already abuzz with broadcasts as Hampson on Fang called for help against Kannstadt and his boarders. Kerry, on Talon, called for assistance against Mongoose’s attack while simultaneously berating the memory, though he didn’t know it, of Tinkham. The remaining pirate ship, Claw, demanded to know what everyone was about, and the merchantmen in orbit squawked and cawed in alarm, like a farmyard’s geese.

  “Belay that, y’scurvy addle-pated, vat-starved curs!” Blackbourne yelled into one of the few gaps between those transmissions. “An’ y’listen to Old Blackbourne or face our Captain Ness’ wrath when he returns, y’will! Kerry an’ Hampson, y’stand down, hear? Yer perfidy’s been discovered an’ Ness’s sent word of it! Trumper!” Blackbourne named the captain of the as-yet unengaged Claw. “You stay quiet or name yerself in their treachery and get dealt the same hand!”

  Reluctant or not, Alexis had to admit that Blackbourne played his part well. She hoped that this ruse, pretending that the pirate leader had sent some word back to his second that Talon’s and Fang’s captains were involved in some treachery might sow enough confusion. It was unlikely that either of those being now attacked would surrender in the face of the accusation — she assumed this pirate leader, Ness, was not known for clemency in the justice he meted out — but it might cause Claw’s captain to hang back and see where the winds blew things.

  “You merchants keep t’yer orbits an’ shut yer gobs!” Blackbourne yelled, keying to transmit again. “Y’let us sort this out, y’hear!”

  Those ships, at least, Alexis saw, were doing as Blackbourne ordered, ceasing their transmissions and doing their very best now to draw no attention from the pirates fighting it out above.

  That had been her greatest worry —

  Well, after the bits about successfully taking Mongoose, getting Kannstadt’s boat close enough to Fang for a boarding, and then fighting this Talon, and, hopefully, distracting Claw from joining in the fight.

  In truth, she had a great many worries right now, more than she could successfully number, it seemed, but the merchantmen were certainly one of them. The appearance of a single gunboat in system, whether from happenstance or should one of the merchantmen make its way to a transition point and signal what was happening in Erzurum’s orbit, would drastically skew the odds, already well against her force. Those gunboats, small though they might be, were numerous and could fire on her from a Lagrangian point and be gone before she even knew they were there.

  By this time, Kerry and his Talon had time to react and were veering away from Mongoose, trying to gain a bit of room to maneuver and get Alexis off her stern. Mongoose’s port broadside lashed out, damaging more of the other ship’s engines and thrusters and making control even more difficult.

  Mongoose rolled again. She was nearly astern of Talon, or astern of the pirate ship’s course, no matter which part faced her, and the starboard broadside was ready again. Her rate of fire was greatly enhanced with nothing for the guncrews to do but load shot, not having to worry about laying the guns for the vagaries
of their shot in darkspace.

  “Blackbourne, what’re you about? Where’s Tinkham? Damn your eyes and bloody red ender, stop firing on my ship!”

  “Tinkham’s busy fightin’ his ship an’ left Old Blackbourne t’jaw with the likes o’you!”

  More fire from Mongoose struck Talon, many of the guns had no angle on the enemy’s stern, so spent themselves along the hull, sending great gouts of vaporized thermoplastic off into space, the effect of these adding to the woes of Talon’s helmsman as each was a tiny, random thruster.

  No matter the surprise, though, Captain Kerry had his men somewhat trained and Talon’s gunports opened to reveal the crystalline tubes of her guns’ barrels.

  Mongoose rolled to present a fresh broadside, and Talon fired at the same time.

  Lasers flashed across the intervening space, showing only the sparkles of what matter there might be between the two ships.

  Mongoose shuddered as coherent light lashed her sides and there was a scream, abruptly cut off, over the open comms channel to the gundeck where one or more of Talon’s guns found an open port.

  “Number four’s set over, sir,” Tite said.

  “Come about — pass under her stern again and give her another,” Alexis ordered.

  Talon was twisting and rolling herself, her helmsman attempting to bring her other broadside to bear while keeping Mongoose from raking her stern again, but Alexis’ largely undamaged ship had the advantage.

  Tite swapped ends, decelerating relative to their target, and cut across the stern before Talon could react.

  “Hold fast and ready to give her both sides, Tite,” Alexis ordered, eyeing the skewing stern of the other ship. Talon was whirling about like some sort of dervish — with vapor spewing from her port quarter where her hull must have been breached and remained unsealed. “Fire!”

  Mongoose herself spun like a top to bring both broadsides to bear in a surprisingly short time. All of Mongoose’s guns fired — save her chasers and the overset number four — sending nineteen streams of coherent light into Talon’s stern.