A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (2 page)

“One down!  Three… six… ten… Fourteen!” he cried, but an instant later,
Skale
was breaking formation from
Ironhide’s
port side, slewing down onto a tangent and divergent course.  Four of the missiles crashed into the corvette’s dorsal side, causing the shields to buckle.  The hull tore outward and the ship spun out of control, away from the fighting.

“
Skale
is hit!” Kufazik called, sounding upset.  “They’re venting atmosphere from three breaches in their dorsal side.  Engines are offline, but it doesn’t look as though the engines themselves have taken damage,” he reported.  “It must be a severed trunk line or plasma conduit or something.”

Skygexx growled, which came out as more of an irritated buzz.  “Tactical, get me that platform!”

The destroyer turned and unleashed her full broadside on the platform.  A blizzard of metal slugs peppered the upper section, destroying the comm antenna clusters and the sensor dishes.  Then the heavy lasers followed up, puncturing the central section of the platform.  Once, twice, a third time and then the platform went dark.  An additional follow up salvo wrecked the quad heavy laser cannons and the missile pods, leaving the platform a wreck.

“Yes!” Hekai shouted.  “Platforms are down, Commander!”

“Good.  Bring us back around.  We’re going to render assistance to
Skale
. 
Cierre
and
Xiy’jan
are to approach the mineral stockpiles.”

“There’s a lot of shuttle and tug activity,” Kufazik warned.

“Well
Cierre
has weapons,” Skygexx replied irritably.  “They can handle a few shuttles and tugs.  We need to help
Skale
, if we can.”  He turned to the communications station.  “Get someone from
Skale
on the line.”

“Yes, Commander.”  It took a minute of work before the comm-tech turned back to look.  “I’ve got Leader Katrag on the line.  Audio only.”

“Leader, this is Skygexx.  Report your situation.”

“Hull breaches on the topside,” came the reply, tinged with static.  “The ship is open like a can of greoche slugs from frame 10 all the way to frame 112, almost to the engine housings.  Two of the main power conduits were severed and we had to scram the reactor.  Luckily we didn’t have to ditch it.”

“Casualties?”

“Six dead during the explosion, nine more were blown out into space when the decompression happened.  And I’ve got six more seriously wounded and in sickbay.  I’ve got engineering teams trying to patch the damage to the conduits, maybe once we get one of them back we can restart the reactor.  Right now I’m running on emergency power.”

“Do you need assistance?” 

“Could use a medic or two,” Katrag replied.  “My own medical department is a bit overwhelmed.”

“We’ll move into docking position with you,” Skygexx ordered, gesturing to the helmsman, who had turned around to watch his commander.

“Appreciate it, Commander,” the other captain replied.  “Won’t be able to have a proper greeting for you when you dock.”

He grunted.  “This isn’t a social call.  I’m sending a pair of medics and some supplies over.  I’ll have an engineering team transfer over as well, if you think you can use them.”

There was a pause.  “You shouldn’t be doing this.”

He started, his antennae twitching.  “What are you talking about, Leader?  Why shouldn’t I be doing this?  Your ship is in distress, we’re all part of the same fleet.”

Katrag grunted.  “Your priority is to get the goods and hit that mining station, not to waste time with my ship.  I was the idiot who couldn’t get my ship out of the way fast enough.  You shouldn’t be wasting your time with me; you should get on with the raid on that station.”  It was clear that the Leader was bitter about what just happened and the proper response Skygexx should be taking.

“We will,” Skygexx assured him.  “Once the personnel and equipment are transferred over, I’ll leave you to it and ‘get on with the raid’.”

“You’d better hope your ship’s firepower isn’t needed before you can get there,” Katrag warned.  “Because if it is and Lord Verrikoth find out you’ve been wasting time with me instead of hitting that mining station, it could be both our carapaces.”  He hissed.  “It
would
be both of our carapaces.”

Skygexx’s antennae twitched nervously.  Katrag was certainly right about that.  For all his talk about not wanting to waste his forces on this raid, Lord Verrikoth was not known for his charitable nature, nor of his willingness to forgive what he considered dereliction.  Stopping to aid a wounded comrade like this in the middle of a job was never considered a high priority.  “That’s why this is going to be a speedy transfer.  I’ll have my people ready to go, lined up outside the airlock.  I just need someone on your end ready to receive them.”

The other zheen paused, clearly thinking about it.  “All right.  I’ll have someone there, ready for you.  What’s your time to docking?”

“Helm?” Skygexx asked.

“Six minutes, Commander.”

“I heard,” Katrag replied.  “I’ll be ready. 
Skale
out.”  And the call ended.

Skygexx hummed to himself, more of a sigh (if he was human).  He sat for a moment, thinking, wondering if this was truly the best way to go here.  Then he waved his antennae.  He was already committed to this maneuver.  He pressed the comm stud on the arm of his chair. 

“Sickbay,” the voice came back.

“It’s the Commander.  I want a pair of medics and two medipacks down to the portside airlock immediately.  They’ll be going over to the
Skale
to help with the wounded.”

“Understood, Commander.  I’d better get to it.”

Skygexx cut the connection.  Then he got on the line with engineering, ordering the chief to get an engineering team together to go over to the corvette to assist in damage control and getting the ship’s engines and reactor back online.

Twenty minutes later, the destroyer was undocking from the corvette, moving in to assist the two freighters in attacking the station.

Silvio Koolidge put a hand to his forehead in near panic.  How the hell could this be happening?  This was a mining station in a safe star system, with plenty of defense ships.  No one was supposed to be coming here.  No one was supposed to be attacking, no,
destroying
his two defensive platforms!  Of course he’d heard about the pirates, everyone who worked for FP had.  And he’d scoffed at the idea that there might be a threat to Seylonique, what with the flotilla of defensive ships built by FP as well as the ones controlled by the government.  And then of course there was the battlecruiser, the
Leytonstone
.  Because of that ship, Seylonique had been kept safe for decades.

But the
Leytonstone
wasn’t here in the system now.  She was light years away, in the nearby system of Ulla-tran, the lead ship in the trade delegation the government had sent six weeks ago.  Of course, several other warships had been pulled to make the trip; someone’s bright idea.  It probably made sense, if he was honest with himself, but now, of course, with pirate warships bearing down on his mining station, he wasn’t feeling very charitable or honest.  His nice, safe system wasn’t so safe anymore.

“Boss, those two freighters are closing on us,” one of his workers called from his station in the command center. 

“Katie?” Silvio asked, turning to his communications specialist.

The middle-aged woman nodded.  “Yeah, Boss, they’re hailing.  And they don’t sound all sweet and happy, either.”

Silvio grimaced.  Glancing around the command center, he could see the fear.  The FP warships were busy dealing with the main fleet, and the asteroid mining station didn’t have any starfighter support.  Now that the weapon platforms were trashed, there was nothing they could do to stop the invaders.

“Muster all the security forces in the forward areas, in the areas where they are probably going to dock.”  He didn’t have a lot of faith that the twenty rent-a-cops armed with stunner pistols would be able to hold back a boarding force of bloodthirsty pirates.  The station’s security was used to break up fights, keep the peace.  They weren’t trained for this.

“All right, put the pirate through,” Silvio said, gesturing to the display.

Katie pressed a control and the display lit up, bringing up the visage of an ebony-skinned human male.  He looked like what Silvio would have called a stereotypical pirate, despite the fact that very few of the company’s employees had ever actually
seen
a pirate before.  His shipsuit was blood red with leather shoulder pads, a bandolier with a brace of knives was slung over one shoulder.  Only the man’s head and shoulders were visible on the display, but Silvio was certain that the man probably had a gun of some sort in a hip holster as well as another blade.  He had small gold hoop earrings through his lobes and a strange tattoo over his right eye, what looked like a glowing blue lightning bolt.

“This is the vessel
Cierre
to mining station.”  The man’s voice was heavily accented, but a dialect that no one in the command center recognized it.  “You will stand down your weapons and surrender.”  He gave a wicked grin, one that sent chills down the station master’s spine.  “If you do this… some of you may live.  Do it not… well,
I
certainly would appreciate it.”  He cut the connection, not even waiting for Silvio to reply.

They all turned from their consoles and looked to Silvio. 
I don’t have any answers!
the panicked part of his brain raged. 
I don’t know what to do!  Don’t look at me.  I’m an administrator, not a military officer.
 

“What are we going to do?” Katie asked, breaking the spell. 

Silvio could feel his control slipping.  “What are the ships doing?”

“One of them is approaching the main docking bay, Boss,” one of the operators reported, his voice shaking.  He bit his lip to try and control it.

“What about the other one?”

“It’s moving out toward the mineral stockpiles we have beaconed and floating nearby.”  The man’s voice had steadied out.  At least only one of the ships was coming in toward them.

All those metals!  Silvio despaired.  “At least we brought the gadolinium inside.”

“You’re worried about that?!” Tevvis, one of the Severite operators shrieked, blinking furiously in his panic.  He stabbed one clawed and furry finger at the sensor display.  “That ship there is closing on us, with a bunch of hardened, vicious killers on board and what you’re worried about is a cargo hold of gadolinium?  We need to get out of here!  We need to stop them.”

“How?” Silvio demanded, his calm snapping.  “How the
hell
are we supposed to stop them?  Or better yet, how are we supposed to get out of here?”

“Shuttles!” Tevvis shot back.  “There are four of them parked in the number three cargo hold.  We can get everyone down there and be out into space in ten minutes!”

“And be right in the line of fire for those pirates!” one of the others cried.  “We’d have to fly right past that big freighter right there,” he pointed, “And they’d shoot us down without even blinking.”

“It’s better than sitting here, waiting to die!” the Severite shouted.  He jumped down from his station and scampered off, racing through the hatch and out of the command center.  Three of the operations techs got up and after a guilty look at Silvio, they tore off down the corridor after him.

“No!” Silvio shouted, but it was too late, they were already gone.

“He’s on his communicator,” Katie said, her voice sounding hollow. 

“Telling the others to leave.”  Silvio’s anger was boiling off, leaving a calmer resignation.  “Let them go.  It isn’t as though we could really stop them.”

“What about the emergency bulkheads?” one of the others asked.  “I mean, we slam them all shut.  That could keep things buttoned up for a time.”

“But what about the pirates?” Katie asked, looking at the other operator.  “If they find their way is blocked, they’ll start cutting through those bulkheads.”

“And that will take time!” the other operator insisted, getting to his feet. 

“Time to do what?” she demanded.  “If it’s taking too long, those pirates out
there
will just start blasting.”  She pointed in the general direction of the two pirate warships which, strangely, were not advancing on the station. 

Silvio had one hand on his head, walking, almost staggering around in distress.  He looked at one of the now vacant consoles and saw that the freighter was almost to the docking bay.  Internal cameras showed the bulk of the security force clustered outside the bay, their stunner pistols held at the ready.  “They’re going to be slaughtered.”

“So are we, Boss,” Katie replied.  “Or taken as slaves.” 

He clutched at his head, pulled at his thinning hair.  “How is this happening?” he wailed.

Once
Cierre
docked with the station, the main cargo doors opened and armed boarders spilled out.  The bay was aired up, but it wouldn’t have mattered, as the boarders were wearing head bags and breather masks.  They wouldn’t survive long out in the vacuum of space, but in an unaired docking bay, they’d be fine.  It didn’t matter, as it turned out, as it didn’t even occur to the station security force to blast the air out of the bay.