A Pirate's Tale: The Only Solution Is Retribution (7 page)

“And your face and body are a little thinner.”

“Just who is this person I’m changing into?”

“You wouldn’t know her.”

“WHO IS SHE!?”

“Calm down.  She’s a good cover for you.  Her name was Victoria Lenora De La Pascal.”

“What do you mean was?”

Victoria owned her own luxury starship and was quite wealthy.  She lost a very rich older husband to incurable cancer and inherited all of his wealth.  She would travel from planet to planet enjoying the high life of the rich and famous and didn’t really ever go back to her home world.  She told everyone that it reminded her of her former husband, whom she missed terribly.  The truth was that her husband’s family challenged the will but could do nothing without her being present to file the case.  So she pretty much became a traveling gypsy enjoying her wealth and having a good time.”  Leo paused, “Unfortunately, she had the misfortune of traveling through a star system that went supernova as she approached it on a filament.  She died and there was no trace of her disappearance.”

“How did you know about this?  And where did you get the technology to do this?!  We’d know about this if it was out there!”

“I didn’t know about it.  I was sold the information by an Insectoid who had a real crush on Victoria.  He pretty much stalked her wherever she went but to my knowledge never approached her.  He collected a sample of her DNA and was thinking about cloning her but after her death, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.”

“The Insectoids don’t interact with anyone outside their species.  They’re great scientists but are antisocial,” Ana said severely.

“I know.  But this one was different.  I collected Victoria’s DNA along with the bath packet and paid a high sum for it and twenty others.  I don’t know if it was really in love with her but he had more than fifty DNA samples of humans that died without being reported.  Victoria’s DNA is perfect for you.”

“Why?”

“Because you can go to Luminus, purchase a luxury starship, and hire a crew to fly it for you.  You can take Victoria’s place and go wherever you want until this little problem resolves itself.  You should go to the other side of the known universe for a time to avoid any chance encounters that might blow your cover.”

“How would I blow my cover?”

“You go and visit your sister or someone else close to you.  I’m reasonably certain anyone that comes near your sister will probably be taken and a full body exam will be conducted.”  Ana opened her mouth and Leo quickly said, “You must avoid communicating with your sister!”

“Why?!  She’s my only family!”

Leo sighed, “Ana, do you think your father would hesitate to use her as a hostage to bring you back in?”  Ana stared at him in silence.  “If you attempt to contact her, your father will intercept the conversation and tell you that she will die along with her baby unless you immediately come back.”

“He could do that anyway.”

“No he couldn’t.”

“Of course he could!”

“Ana, in order for his threat to work, you have to know about it.  Either from his mouth or by a sent message that he knows you’ve received.  If he doesn’t know for certain you’ve heard it, he won’t waste the only thing he has to get you back.  Your sister is safer now than before you came with me.  Think about this, Ana, and you’ll see I’m right.  I suspect she’s screaming at Serge at this very moment demanding to know where you are.  He’ll see her emotions are real and know she has not spoken with you.  He will be prepared to intercept any communication you make to her and issue his threat immediately before you could end the contact.”

“I don’t want her to worry and suffer over me, Leo.”

“It’s that suffering and worrying that will keep her alive, Ana.”

Ana took the card and went back into the bathroom.  She looked at the card and then into the mirror.  She looked several more times and then walked out of the bathroom, “This Victoria was nice on the eyes.”

Leo smiled, “She usually got what she wanted from admirers.”

“Did you ever meet her?”

“I did.  And it was my conversations with her that caused the Insectoid to speak to me after she died.”

“I know I’m asking a lot of questions but why would it speak to you?”

“Because it knew I was carrying a Purple Card and hoped that one day I’d bring Victoria back to life.  You don’t hide things from an Insectoid.  It found me after her death and offered her DNA at no charge.  I guess it must have had sincere feelings for Victoria.  I developed a relationship with him and I’ve used him numerous times since.”

“Who trained you to see everything?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Was it this Insectoid?”

“It was.”

“Well, I want you to contact him and tell him I’ll pay him to be trained.”  Leo’s eyes narrowed.  “Don’t get sanctimonious on me, Leo.  If I’m going to have to go away for a time, as you say, I am going to use the time to learn how to survive in a universe filled with Spiders!”

“I don’t know if he’d agree to do it.”

“Leave that up to me.  I want to know how to contact him.”

Leo sighed, “I’ll give you his contact code once we get you a new communicator.”

“Where are we going to get that?”

“On Luminus.  Two ships are cheaper than one.”

“You don’t have a ship?”

“No, I was forced to abandon it.”

“Pray tell what caused you to do that?”

“Fifty blasters blowing it apart in orbit.”

“How did you escape that?”

“I wasn’t on it at the time.  However, my brother was.”

“Better buy a better ship!”

“I can now afford to do so.”

“I’ll pay for both as long as you give me the contact code.”

Leo rolled his eyes and then started shaking his head, “I had to undergo a lot of changes physically in order to have some of the talents I possess, Ana.  I can tell you that it was extremely painful to do it.  Are you willing to suffer through being trained?”

Ana’s eyebrows came together, “More than you know!”

“I’m booking us on a Starliner to Luminus tonight and we’ll be leaving in six hours.  In the meantime, you and I are going shopping.”

“Shopping?”

“Victoria would never go out looking like this.  We have some work to do.”

“What kind of work?”

“I know you’re basically a modest person but you’re going to have to get over that quickly.  Victoria was proud of her appearance and didn’t mind revealing it.”

“I don’t know if I…”

“You can and you will!  Just play the role of Victoria and you can deal with it.  It’ll get easier over time.  Just remember three things; smile, flirt, and laugh.  Let’s go shopping.  For the next two weeks, we’re going to have to use my bank-card until yours is active.  Just look at me with a smile and say, ‘Jerry, please handle this.’”

“Jerry?”

“He was one of Victoria’s servants.”

“Oh geeeezzz.  Lead the way.”

L
eo sat in the rear of first class and watched the men seated around Ana making a fool of themselves.  The one-piece black and gold body suit she was wearing was quite revealing, especially at the plunging neck line.  Ana nearly called the whole thing off when they went shopping until she noticed several men stop in the store and gawk at her.  She looked at one of them and said sternly, “Is something the matter?”

The man stammered, “N…no!  You are incredibly beautiful.  I was wondering if you might share a dinner with me tonight.”

Ana was shocked at the statement and pulled it off like a champ.  She walked over to him and leaned against his arm as she smiled, coyly, “I’m sorry.  I’m flying out in a few hours.”  She batted her eyes teasing, “Maybe another time?”

The man nearly broke his arm pulling a business card out of his pouch and hand it to her, “Please, call me!”

“You know I will.”  The man walked off and she glanced at Leo.  He smiled and she went back to the sales woman and continued purchasing expensive clothes.  She even asked that several items she had rejected earlier be brought back out.  He wondered at the sudden change and wished he knew what was going on in her mind.  She was…different. 

He sat back and looked out of the viewport at the twenty mile wide filament the Starliner was traveling.  No one really understood why the filaments existed.  Every star had at least one filament that connected it to another star.  One side of the filament moved away from the star and the other side moved toward it.  The speed of every filament varied but all of them moved at superlight speeds.  The invention of the stardrive field, which allowed ships to leave normal space and go into, what scientists called, Under Space, revealed them and the universe discovered a way to travel to distant stars and civilizations.  He looked at Ana and knew trouble lay ahead in her future.  He turned back to the viewport.  Luminus was six hours away.

• • •

They arrived on Luminus and after three days, she turned to him, “I should have given you more funds initially.  We can’t afford the really good ships.”

“Fifty million credits just aren’t what they used to be.  However, I don’t intend to buy a new ship; I’m looking for an old vessel that I can have modified.”

“Why do you want an old ship?”

“I’m going after a Pirate and a new ship would only cause suspicions on Tortuga.”

“Should I purchase a used ship?”

“No!  Victoria wouldn’t be caught dead in an old ship.  Let’s do this.  I’ll find an old ship and we’ll purchase it and stay on board until your cards activate.  I’ll take what remains in my account and use it as a down payment to get them started building your new ship now.  By the time it’s done, your account will be active and we’ll transfer some funds back into my account.”

“I don’t want you to empty your account; you might need it.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem for the short time that remains.”

Ana stared at him for a moment, batted her eyes, and leaned against him, “Oh, Darlin, just use my card in the future and don’t touch your account.  I don’t think you can make a dent in my savings.”  She batted her eyes again.

Leo laughed, “Your card it is.  I won’t abuse it.”

“Abuse it?  Do whatever you need to do to keep us safe.”

Leo looked at her for a long moment and then said, “Thank you.”

Ana smiled, “This is a good deal for both of us, honey.”

• • •

The next eleven days passed uneventfully and Ana asked Leo the day before her accounts activated, “What sort of modifications are you going to make on your ship?”

“I’m going to arm it.”

“Arm it?”

“I’m going to make it as powerful as a main Unity Battleship.  I do intend to hide some of the weapons under the ship’s hull so they won’t be seen.  They will actually cost more than the ship to install.”

Ana thought for a minute and said, “What about arming the ship I’m purchasing.”

“Your crew might be overly curious about that.”

“That’s another question I have, Leo.  Just how am I going to go about selecting those to crew my ship?  If any of them learn that Serge Romanov is looking for me and they get suspicious, they might tell him where I am to receive a reward.”

Leo stared at her and leaned back in the ship’s command chair, “I haven’t really thought about arming your ship.  I thought you’d just go out and enjoy yourself until things cooled off.  You’re getting pretty good at playing the role of Victoria, so I doubt you’d raise any suspicions.”

“Leo, you know who I’m up against here.  If there’s a way for me to be found, Serge can do it.  I don’t want to be defenseless if that happens and I’ll need a crew to help me escape, not turn me in.”

Leo nodded slowly, “You’re right.  You can follow me to where I’m having the mods done and I’ll contact some friends and see it they’re interested in signing on as your ship’s crew.  I suspect if you pay them right, they’ll do it.”

“Can they be trusted?”

Leo smiled, “I’d give my life to defend any of them and I know they’d do the same.”

“But I’m not you.”

“If I ask them to make sure no harm comes to you, it would be just like defending me.  But you have to make it worth their while.”

“How much?”

“Let me ask them.”

“Would it be possible for me to be there when you do?”

Leo stared at her for a long moment and lifted a shoulder, “You can be present.  I’m paying for their transportation to the site where the mods are going to be done.  We’ll meet them there.”

“How am I going to follow you without a crew to fly my ship?”

“Your ship will have an auto-pilot.  It will automatically follow my ship without a crew on board.”

Ana smiled, “Really.”

“You ship is going to be the most modern up-to-date pleasure yacht in this galaxy.  It will have all the latest conveniences and electronic gadgets available.  I’ll also make sure it will be able to defend itself in a fight.”

“This is exciting.”

Leo shrugged, “You haven’t met the Insectoid, yet.  Wait until after that happens.”

“Could you invite him to come to meet with us as well?”

Leo sighed and tilted his head, “I guess he’ll come.  I never know with him.”

“Tell him Victoria is back and she desperately wants to meet him.”

Leo chuckled, “That may do it.”  Ana smiled and then burst out laughing.

• • •

The next day, the purchase price for Ana’s ship was done and she asked him in a moment of privacy, “Why do I need a ship that big?  It cost twelve billion credits.”

“If the Insectoid agrees to join you, he is going to need a lot of space.  That rear room will be needed if he does.”

“Why?”

“He will need the space to put some items in to start your training.”  Ana stared at him and Leo added, “You also need a ship with a big enough hull to hide all the blasters and missile ports I hope to have installed.  You can’t have any visible on the ship’s hull and pull off being a pleasure yacht.”

“Oh, ok.”  Leo knew she was missing what was coming but she’d find out soon enough.  The ship he chose for her was being built on the frame of an Insectoid Battle Cruiser that was salvaged after their battle with the Unity.  It might come down to him needing it later to help him get out of trouble.  He also hoped that he would benefit from the Insectoid’s interest in Ana.