The other ship disappeared behind a cloud of vaporized thermoplastic, before reappearing as Mongoose passed.
Talon had power, as evidenced by her hull lights, but no propulsion and little in the way of maneuvering power. The ship tumbled and twisted along her last course, her helmsman seeming to make no effort now to regain control, or merely unable with so much damage to the drive and thrusters.
Blackbourne was still throwing as much confusion into the pirates’ communications as he could — which, Alexis had to admit, was quite a lot, for it would take any listener some time to pick out the gist from within the shell of profane curses the pirate spewed forth.
Captains Hampson and Trumper, of the boarded Fang and oncoming Claw, were involved in a heated exchange, with Hampson demanding Trumper come to his aid in fighting off the boarders and Trumper alternately demanding Blackbourne, Hampson, and Kerry all stand down, as though he were the voice of reason in some internal piratical dispute.
“Bloody hell, there ain’t no call t’be shootin’ up ourn own ships!” Trumper broadcast. “Ness’ll be back in a fortnight or two and clear it all up, damn you! Blackbourne — stop Tinkham from shooting and call your bloody men off Fang, you scabrous dolt!”
That exchange gave Alexis a bit of valuable knowledge, as she’d trust Trumper’s excited outburst far more than any questioning of the pirates she might do. If this Ness were expected back so soon as a fortnight, perhaps ten or twenty days, allowing for the vagaries of darkspace winds, then that told her how long they had to secure those kept captive on Erzurum and flee the system.
“Damn you, Blackbourne, you traitorous scum!” Captain Hampson’s voice cut across the channel, the sound of pistols, lasers, and screams of men from behind him. “Trumper, they’re not our men, they’re bloody Hannies!”
“Claw’s accelerating and coming up to our orbit, sir,” Tite called from the tactical console.
It appeared Captain Trumper of that ship had decided on both whose side he came down on and the action to take, leaving Hampson to fight off the boarders himself and coming after Mongoose and, Alexis presumed, Blackbourne.
“Steady on, Layland,” Alexis ordered. “We’ll get around Erzurum and take on Claw once we’re in view of those merchantmen.”
It would be better, all told, to fight the last pirate vessel away from those merchant ships, so that one of their captains wouldn’t take it into his head to ingratiate himself with the pirates by assisting, but she had the further duty of preventing those very merchants from escaping. Just one of them transitioning to darkspace would alert the gunboats and set those on their newly captured ships like bold rats.
The merchants had clustered together in their orbits, as though there might be some strength in numbers from the chaos surrounding them, but just as Mongoose rounded the planet’s curve to bring them into sight one was seen to break off and make away from orbit — probably to head for the L4 point, if Alexis judged his course correctly. L1 was closer, but would have meant staying in the vicinity of the planet, something she suspected that the captain would prefer not to do.
“Get yer scurrilous arse back in orbit, y’running dog!” Blackbourne transmitted. “Or ye’ll never take a cargo here again and ye’ll forever be a target fer Ness!”
It was a brief, but noticeable, lag for Blackbourne’s words to reach the other ship, and more for the response to return.
“It’s not my fight, Blackbourne!” the merchant captain yelled. “We came for a bloody cargo, not to get caught up in whatever you and Ness and whoever else have going on! And if I know Ness, he’ll not care a whit that I chose not to stay under your bloody guns, so long as I bring enough coin for those cargoes!”
“Old Blackbourne has to admit the man’s the right of it, bitch-woman,” Blackbourne said to Alexis.
Alexis sighed. “Do you suppose you might stop calling me that?”
Blackbourne shrugged. “Yer a hard girl, bitch-woman, and Old Blackbourne’s thinking a word or two’ll not change how you treat him in the end.”
Alexis might have insisted, but she did still need the man, even though his presence didn’t seem to have influenced the merchantmen. If anything, the merchant captain’s response might have convinced another it was time to leave, for a second ship was making to break Erzurum’s orbit.
Well, then, if threats of pirates wouldn’t cow them, she’d take a different tack.
She edged Blackbourne away from the signals console and made to transmit herself.
“To all merchant shipping in orbit around Erzurum, this is Lieutenant Alexis Carew of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy and commanding the private ship Mongoose. Heave-to and prepare for inspection, on suspicion of complicity in piracy and slavery. I also speak for Captain Kannstadt of the Republic of Hanover, in whose space we lie.” She paused. “Gentlemen, I assure you we have neither the time nor patience for the niceties of shots across your bows nor chasing down rabble.” She paused another moment, watching the navigation plot and then, as there appeared to be no immediate change in the fleeing ship’s course, opened the channel again. “Very well. Tite, put both broadsides into that fleeing bastard and keep it on until he returns to orbit.”
“Aye, sir.”
Mongoose was twisting and spinning to bring her guns to bear even as the merchant captain’s voice sounded over the quarterdeck speakers.
“What? Who are you? Blackbourne, what are you about now?”
The guns lashed out, sparkling across the distance between the two ships and striking the merchantman all along her starboard side. Gouts of vapor, thermoplastic, and air all spewed from the ship as her hull was shot through, then then Mongoose’s second broadside flashed across the intervening space, wrecking more havoc and damage on the fleeing ship.
The merchant’s hull was thinner than a warship’s — thinner, even, than Mongoose’s or the pirates’, which had both been strengthened to take some enemy fire, though even they weren’t up to a true warship’s. Mongoose’s shot had holed the merchantman in more than one place, exposing the inner compartments to vacuum and dumping what air there was before inner hatches slammed shut.
Alexis had a moment’s qualms for the merchant spacers aboard, but they’d sailed with a captain willing to carry goods pirated from his fellows and they’d have to take what fates awaited them for it.
“Come about, Captain —” Alexis checked the navigation plot for the information. “— Yavuz, and return to orbit. I don’t think your ship will stand another broadside and I’ve time for one or two more before dealing with your fellows.”
Alexis gave him a few seconds and was relieved to see the ship turn and begin decelerating for a return to Erzurum’s orbit. Part of that was not wanting to have to fire into the ship again and kill more of the crew, though they’d all likely hang when this was done anyway, but another part was that she needed every ship in orbit.
If Ness and the rest of the pirates were returning in a fortnight, then she’d need as many ships as she could take to get the freed New London spacers away or meet him if there were too many to flee.
“Damn your eyes, whoever you are!” Yavuz said. “There’s good men dead here for no good reason!”
Alexis ignored him, there were good men dead with Captain Kannstadt in the taking of Fang, too, for all they were Hanoverese and often enough her enemy. Good men dead by the pirates taking their prey. Good men dead in Erzurum’s swamps and on its farms. There were enough good men dead in this mess that she’d not spare too much of a thought for those who’d profit by it.
Satisfied that Yavuz was returning Gabya to orbit, Alexis could turn her attention to the last oncoming pirate.
“Come about, Layland, and set us on this Claw.”
The pirates on Erzurum’s surface were in it now, having heard Alexis’ broadcast to the merchantmen, and calling for Blackbourne to explain himself. As well, those merchant spacers still on the surface with their ships’ boats, some feeling abandoned by the ship which attempted to f
lee, wondering at its state and if they were to be abandoned on the pirate planet, and others wishing nothing more than to get to their own ships so as to steer clear of further conflict.
Kannstadt had gained control of Fang’s quarterdeck, if not the entirety of the ship, and put a man on the signals console who, for some inexplicable reason, added German to the babble of voices. What he hoped to accomplish by that, with so many of the ships in orbit speaking English or, in the case of most of the merchants, the Barbary patois, Alexis couldn’t imagine.
Nevertheless, Schwalheimer was able to pass along enough of Kannstadt’s status for Alexis to understand that he might have the quarterdeck, but did not yet have control of Fang’s guns and would be no help against the oncoming Claw.
Thirty-Eight
There was little need for Layland to bring the ship around, for Claw was well on her own way to engaging Mongoose. The last pirate ship was accelerating and dropping toward their orbit in order to better catch up with them.
“Steady on, then, Layland,” Alexis said. She went to the helm and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s draw her in.”
“Aye, sir.”
They kept on, both Alexis and Layland with a wary eye for the plots and any movement from Claw, looking for the start of the twist and roll that would present her broadside and send the shot from her guns streaking to bury itself in Mongoose.
“Gunners ready, sir,” Tite announced from the tactical console.
Alexis merely nodded, nearly all her attention on the other ship. She’d assumed her own would be ready when the time came, something which might have been a mistake with so many new-come aboard and after they’d spent so long on Erzurum — but she’d had a word with each man as the boat loaded to lift them, and, if they hadn’t understood the word itself, they’d understood the tone of a captain taking their measure and reacted as she wished.
The way a man nodded, the set of his jaw, a narrowness of an eye, the matter of fact “Aye, sir” or “Jawohl” — all told her they were steady enough for what was coming.
Mongoose had her stern toward Claw — an open invitation, or taunt, for the pirate captain, if he knew or suspected the slap-shoddy way of his fellows’ repairs.
The distance closed. Claw drew nearer.
Ahead of their course, lower now for both ships and among the orbits of the merchants who’d wanted less travel in their cramped boats, those merchants scattered out of the way, much like a flock of birds all hoping they’ll not be the stooping eagle’s target this time.
The angle of Claw’s bow to Mongoose’s stern reached a certain point, not one calculated by the navigation plot or announced by Tite from his tactical analysis, but something felt. Alexis’ hand tightened its grip and Layland’s hands danced over the controls — neither could swear to which came first or if either reacted to the others, only that they felt it.
Alexis cut off the order, seeing that Layland was already moving, setting Mongoose to twist in her course even as the shot from Claw’s bowchasers arrived to splash harmlessly against the ship’s port flank.
They waited, steady on, twice more for Claw to fire chasers, twice more for Layland and Alexis to react to either their feel of the battle’s rhythm or some twitch of the pirate’s bow as it prepared to fire. Twice more Mongoose swerved to present her flank, Layland’s hands dancing over the controls to correct for the push of vaporizing thermoplastic from her hull.
Even as they settled back to their course, Alexis knew the distance was right.
Still she waited, keeping Mongoose on course, as though wanting to lead her pursuer right around Erzurum and back to Kannstadt’s taken Fang.
It was the right thing to do, to lead the pirate a merry chase and then turn to strike when her enemy was under the guns of two ships.
Claw’s captain would know that too, and would want to finish his foes in detail, not have to maneuver against two.
The pirate’s bow twitched — once, twice, as though undecided or wishing Mongoose to react and commit to a roll in response, perhaps allowing him to twist and send his whole broadside at her still exposed stern.
Claw’s bow edged to starboard.
“Now!” Alexis yelled, feeling the feints were done and this was the other captain’s true move. “Hard a’port! Roll and put our keel to her! Gunners ready!”
“Aye, sir!”
Mongoose twisted to put her stern away from the gunports being exposed along Claw’s port side. It was too late for the other captain to change his maneuver — doing so would bring his bow back around to face Mongoose’s broadside and give Alexis the opportunity to rake his full length with her largest guns.
Committed, Claw turned faster.
Mongoose turned and rolled, presenting her heavy keel, the full length of it retracted as unnecessary in normal-space and laid like armor to face the oncoming assault.
Claw fired.
Shot after shot struck home, the pirate’s computer being able to lay the ship for each in normal-space, and more accurately than a man ever could. Pock marks of vanished thermoplastic appeared on Mongoose’s keel.
Claw continued her roll, bringing first her own keel and then her other broadside to bear.
Alexis thought that would end the worst of it, unless Claw had far more pirates aboard than either Mongoose or the others. They’d not have enough, as she didn’t, to reload and fight both sides of the ship past these initial broadsides.
“Roll to port!” Alexis ordered, even as the first of the new shot struck Mongoose.
She’d seen Claw’s best, she thought, a heavy, ponderous roll for such a small ship — enough to cow a merchant, but not nearly enough to face her Mongoose. Claw’s captain would not reverse his ship’s roll, wanting to keep what momentum he had.
Claw made to put her own keel forward to take the fire her captain must know was coming and give his crew time to reload at least one side, but Mongoose was, indeed, faster, and her own broadside was coming to bear on the disappearing side of the other ship, rather than oncoming keel.
Alexis gripped the sides of the navigation plot, casting her gaze from the computer’s plot of both ships’ courses to the images of Claw. “Port broadside, fire as you bear!”
Mongoose lashed out, finally freed to respond to her adversary’s pinpricks.
Gun after gun fired, crossing the intervening space in an instant and nearly invisible in normal-space. Only the occasional flash in the vacuum as it vaporized some bit of dust or gas left behind by those pinpricks Mongoose had felt against her keel.
Mongoose’s guns sought out Claw’s open gunports at increasingly difficult angles as the other ship rolled to hide them, but not quickly enough.
Some hit the edges of the ports, pocking the other ship’s side or carving crescents from her hull as they spent themselves against the tough thermoplastic.
Others struck true.
Through the ports without even the thin gallenium nets that would have protected them in darkspace.
One struck a gun captain, already crouched to load a fresh canister of shot into the breach. The full force of Mongoose’s shot took him in the helmet, the energy of a nine-pound capacitor vaporized the pirate’s head, and the helmet before continuing on to strike the shot rack running down the middle of Claw’s gundeck.
The gallenium shot canisters, scratched and dinged from heavy use, provided enough reflection to splinter what energy was left into a dozen beams, each enough to cut a man down.
A gun carriage overturned, struck in the side and its parts not able to absorb the energy of the shot, it released that energy by sending bits of itself into its crew.
Men dove for the decks, throwing themselves prostate to avoid the oncoming fire, even though they knew they couldn’t possibly be fast enough — if they were able to reach the deck, then the fire was already done.
At least for the moment — until their enemies’ next turn in this deadly game.
With that realization, and with the sight of dea
d comrades, wrecked guns, and bits of molten thermoplastic still liquid about their gundeck, came the knowledge that, for all they’d fired first and more, their enemy was still whole.
“Starboard guns, as you bear! Fire!”
Alexis knew her next broadside would be largely wasted against Claw’s keel, and she might have saved those guns for later, but wished to put the other captain under the psychological impact of steady fire.
If this battle with Claw went on too long, another of those merchant captains might take it into his head that escaping while she was occupied would be fine idea. One word to the gunboats in darkspace and they were finished.
“Put our keel to her and reload!”
“Aye, sir!”
Claw was continuing her own roll, so as to bring freshly loaded guns to bear.
“Give us a bit of thrust, Layland,” Alexis said, tracing possibilities on the plot. “Make him maneuver a bit.”
“Aye, sir.”
A rolling battle of broadsides would take too long, she thought, better to force the other captain to judge her intentions and react — perhaps some mistake and opening would —
Fire lashed out, sparkling as it destroyed what bits of matter remained in the void and thermoplastic spewed from a hull — but not Mongoose’s as Alexis had expected. This shot came from a distance, mostly bracketing Claw, but one or two striking home on the part of her hull facing away from Erzurum.
“Ah, Captain Kannstadt’s in range with Fang, sir,” Tite announced.
“Indeed?” Alexis would have to have a talk with the man about keeping his eye on more than the battle at hand from his tactical console — or, perhaps not, as she saw him flush and hunch over his screen. There were times a single word was quite enough. It seemed that Kannstadt had managed to fully take his own target and bring Fang within range to assist Alexis with taking Claw.
The Queen's Pardon (Alexis Carew Book 6) Page 22