Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Consequence (6 page)

              "I'll go up to him and get his attention," offered Web.  "I'll do something to get him to focus just on me; maybe I'll make him mad and try to get him to smack me around a bit."

              "Is that the part where you'll cry like a little girl?" asked Mithus innocently.

              "Yes; I learned by watching you cry every time you ran out of steam after three or four pushups."

              Mithus was trying hard not to smile.  This officer was a cool operator; he wondered if Halley had tried to recruit him.

              "So the guards eyeball him and we take them out?" asked Halley.  "Seems too easy."

              "Well, you two have to stay out of sight and out of mind.  I'll have to let them kick me around for a little while.  Then you two come in, save the day, and we move on to the next phase."

              Halley didn't like it, of course, but there weren't many options.  Without any support or time to plan in-depth, she'd had to set the plan in motion and fill in the blanks.  Ideally she would have showed up only a day or so before the mission (breaking in guns blazing and not entering as a prisoner), but she'd done enough digging to learn about the new truth drugs and assumed they'd use them on Web since he was 'only' a soldier and not a political prisoner that might be worth something in trade someday.  Her appearance and the ruckus preceding it would focus attention on her instead.  Her training would help her resist longer than Web would have, and all she needed to hold out for was three days.  A hoped-for local contact had backed out of a deal for work on the extraction, so she'd improvised the best she could.  In the meantime, she only hoped Web wasn't going to put himself in even more danger before they could escape.

              The captured pirate ship raced through hyperspace.  Avenger followed at a respectful distance which would give her plenty of time to drop out of hyper far behind if necessary.  Loren and Velk stayed on the bridge, the taller Priman ducking constantly and eventually claiming a console to sit at and thus save his scalp from repeated attacks.

              The first day had been uneventful.  The pirate frigate had followed a course plotted to maximize their chances of avoiding contested space.  It meant their journey would take longer, but any contact with Primans, Talarans or even Confed forces would lead to more trouble than they wanted.  With Avenger following them, the pressure to stay undiscovered was intense because nothing would stir up the Primans like the hated Confed ship being spotted behind the front lines.

              Loren and Velk had a sort of easy understanding.  They shared the same ideals for their people and their interests aligned; neither would admit to the other but both hoped their alliance was more than a passing phase.

              They often went hours without saying anything; Velk was not a chatty conversationalist, while Loren didn't have much idea how you started a conversation with the leader of a conquering enemy horde. 

              "So do you know for sure you have some allies where we're headed?" Loren asked as they both picked at the remains of their self-heating ration packs.  Loren, not a fan of piracy or the ships they called home, tossed his wadded up packaging into a dark corner of the bridge.  Velk folded his up and set it aside for disposal later.

              "When I was a Representative, before you and your team captured me, I knew where I could find a friendly face.  There were a number of them stationed at the facility on the planet we are headed to, but I could not say for sure if their assignments have changed."

              "Well, I guess that'll have to do then."  Loren pushed back on his chair and stood, crossing the few steps to where their equipment crates sat.  There had been much debate over whether to allow Velk to have a weapon, but Loren himself had given the ok, saying it didn't much matter whether Velk had a gun or not because soon they'd be in Priman space anyway.  If Velk meant to betray him, the possession of a weapon wouldn't matter.

              "You want to try on your compression mask?" Loren asked.

              "Not really."

              "Can't blame you there.  But we're heading to a Talaran planet, so you need to look like a human and I need to look like a
different
human."

              It was at that moment that the hyperdrive field elected to destabilize, dropping the plodding vessel back into normal space with a jolt.  Loren and Velk both held on to their consoles as crates, duffels and anything else not bolted down slid across the bridge.  The ship's vibration and movement stabilized to the sound of the hull creaking and popping from the stress.

              "That was..." Loren paused to find the right word.

              "Unsettling," Velk finished.

              "Yes."

              "Will Avenger outrun us?"

              "No, her sensors are good and her sensor operator is better.  They'll drop out a safe distance behind us and wait.  Until we send out the distress signal, they'll give us our space."

              "Then we should find out what is the matter.  Are you more skilled with the software or hardware of hyperdrives?"

              "I can swear and hit things with a hammer," Loren said cheerfully.  "I'll go yell at the engines themselves."

              "I will attempt to restart the software here on the bridge then."

Four

              Loren walked down the long gangway from bridge to engineering.  Every few frames there were short walkways connecting the gangway to hatches along the bulkheads, which opened into compartments that lined the outer hull.  At each end of the corridor there were vertical ladders going down one level to access cramped, private crew quarters.  The two story compartment saved on construction costs versus a fully completed space with decking and ventilation, which gave the ship a cheap, worn out feel.

              His boots clanked along the open grates as he passed into the next major compartment: the cargo bay.  It was huge, floor sinking down to make the overall space almost three stories tall, with immense cargo doors along the port side and smaller hatches on the starboard side.  Gantries, cranes, and movable decking areas that rode on rails and vertical guides took up the space.  It was actually a quite ingenious design which allowed the cargo bay to be reconfigured quickly.  Loren scanned the contents as he walked past, seeing the bagged pirate bodies lined up by a crew hatch.  Loren and Captain Elco had briefly talked about a burial at space, but time was of the essence.  When he and Velk abandoned the frigate where they were going, the harbor master would receive an anonymous tip about the ship and her crew.  Just another load of pirates safely removed from business.

              The engineering spaces were just as dirty and noisy as the bridge, probably more so.  Loren felt the subsonic thrumming of the hyperspace drives trying to form a field.  That thrumming shouldn't be happening; it was the sign of a field starting to form but failing to stabilize, then crashing and starting all over again; he hoped it wasn't causing any cellular damage or scrambling any of the neural impulses going on in his own body.  He'd received a crash course in electromagnetics and how they related to hyperdrive fields once, and there were many potential side effects that would ruin a person's day/week/life.  The lecturer giving the briefing had talked about DNA damage and how people hoping to reproduce should make sure their engines are in tip top shape lest they have funny looking kids.

              With that in mind, Loren quickly raced to the console and scrammed the hyperdrive engines.  Considering all the noise and commotion going on, that act was accompanied by almost no fanfare.  The thrumming stopped, at least, along with a whooshing sound of the fuel lines being purged.  He started the reboot sequence, a process that could only be done one way and was fairly easy to figure out after studying the controls.  A ship like this wasn't designed to be run by experts with years of training such as on a military vessel or larger ship; the layout was standardized for the common life form.

              After a few minutes, things were running smoothly and Loren returned to the bridge, clanking down the gantry the whole way.

              "Everything good up here?" Loren asked of Velk, who was now seated at the navigation console.

              "Yes.  I have restarted the system and was about to engage the hyperdrive again."

              Loren just extended his arm, palm up, to Velk in a gesture meant to tell the Priman to go ahead.

              Velk tapped the 'confirm' button, and they were off again.

              The second day passed faster than the first.  Loren and Velk talked a bit about the plan once they landed and who they'd contact first.

              When it was time to call it a night, Loren took first watch.  While they'd searched the ship and weren't expecting company, they'd both agreed that the rust bucket they were tooling around in probably needed constant supervision. 

              Among the supplies they'd brought were sleeping mats, and Velk had stretched his out in the forward portion of the bridge where it was darkest. 

              Loren occupied himself first with field stripping and cleaning his SSK, then running an inventory of the items they'd take with them when they got to the surface.  After that, he spent some time playing with the ship's sensors and then trying to crack its various encrypted files.

              Two hours into the watch, Loren noticed the systems panel changing status.  The atmospheric pressure was dropping slowly, which would eventually result in hypoxia and death if unchecked.  Problem was, there were no detected hull or bleed air problems that the computer could detect. 

              Loren suddenly realized what was going on.  He stood up quickly, chair tipping over with a crash, as he almost hit his head on an overhead light ballast. 

              "Velk!" he said forcefully but quietly.

              Loren turned to the rear hatch to go secure it when he heard the telltale priming charge of a blaster from the starboard side of the bridge.  His SSK was on the console just out of reach.

              "Don't even look at that thing," came a voice from the darkness, "or I'll shoot you down and just ask the other guy what's going on here."

              A man took a few careful steps forward and Loren instantly knew it was the captain.  They'd checked the whole crew over, but none had talked during their transfer to Avenger's brig and everyone had assumed the captain was simply among them but didn't want to admit it.  Apparently, the captain has been on his ship the whole time.

              "You must have some well shielded stash compartments," Loren said with a measure of respect.

              "I don't care what you have to say; let's just get that out of the way right now.  I'm taking my ship back.  You and your friend over there are going to our prisoner cells."

              "Can I ask your name?" Loren said.

              "Captain Ares," the pirate replied.  "Don't forget it."

              "I guarantee that."

              "Now, where's your friend?"  Captain Ares shot a glance at the forward part of the bridge, but couldn't see into the dark.  He took another step forward and reached up to a panel bolted haphazardly to the compartment's ceiling.  He flipped a couple old fashioned toggle switches and the bridge lit up with yellow emergency lights.  Though it was a bit of a strain on the eyes, there were no more places to hide.

              Captain Ares looked at Velk's bedroll, which was unoccupied. 

              "Where is the Priman?" Ares asked.

             
Damn
, Loren thought.  That had the potential to be trouble as well.  This pirate's feelings toward Primans could throw a serious wrench in the works depending on whether the judgment was good or bad.

              "Last I saw, he was asleep on his bedroll, no doubt dreaming happily about conquering the galaxy at large."

              The pirate stomped closer to Loren, scarred and weathered blaster pointed at his forehead but just out of arm's reach.  "I don't find that amusing.  You seem to be pretty happy with yourself, though, eh?"  Captain Ares flicked the weapon towards the front of the bridge where Velk's bedroll was, indicating Loren needed to head that way.  Loren shuffled slowly, backing up towards the fore end of the bridge as Captain Ares aligned himself with his back to the bridge hatch.

              "If your friend doesn't want to show himself, you're both going to get locked in here while I bypass controls of the ship to another station.  Except it's going to stink real bad, because you'll be full of blaster holes and this compartment is going to smell like charred meat.  That is, until you start to decompose.  Unless I just vent the air right away."  The pirate made a show of looking thoughtfully at the air vent above Loren's head.  "Hmm, that might be more fun, actually."

              "We're not really that good of pals," Loren offered somberly.  "I'm not sure he'd lose too much sleep if you blasted me."

              "Seriously?" the pirate replied.

              "In fact," they heard from the starboard side where Captain Ares had first appeared, "I
would
take offense.  I need that man alive."

              Ares twitched his head to look right, but by the time he realized he'd taken his eyes off Loren it was too late.  Loren juked his head right to get out of the line of fire, then grabbed the slide of the blaster with his left hand.  He hit the pirate in the nose with a palm strike followed by a right elbow, then spun to his left and inside towards the pirate's chest.  He switched his grip to grab the blaster with his right hand as he jabbed the pirate in the solar plexus with his left elbow, and the pirate was on the deck wheezing for air that could barely make it in through his broken nose or stunned chest.

              Loren wound up to crack the man in the temple with the butt of his own pistol but stopped himself.  The pirate was not a threat, and in fact collapsed to the deck a second later.

              Loren took a step back and field stripped the captain's weapon, then grabbed and holstered his own SSK from the top of the console.

              Velk was standing over the pirate by the time Loren returned.

              "You showed restraint.  Why?"

              "We all do things during conflict where we get a little out of control.  I guess I figured out just in time that this guy didn't need any more of a beating."

              "You think he would have spared you?" Velk looked at Loren critically.

              "Probably not.  But that's not the point, is it?  I can't make up for some things I've done, Representative, but I can try to prove to everyone else and myself that I still know how to be a decent human."

              Velk just nodded, and Loren could swear he saw compassion in the man's eyes.  "Someday, Commander, when this is all over, you and I will have many rewarding conversations about the galaxy and the way things could be."

              About half a light-minute behind the pirate frigate, Avenger paced the ship as her crew readied themselves for what would most likely be another hair-raising transit through Priman space.

              The low-grade scanners on the pirate ship hadn't even detected the event, but they'd been only seconds away from the sensor threshold of a Priman light cruiser that had been patrolling the area they'd passed through a few hours ago.  Perhaps ignorance was bliss.

              "Well," Captain Elco began from where he stood behind Lieutenant Caho's sensor station, "now the hard part begins.  We're about to cross into what everyone would agree is the area the Primans consider their own pacified space."

              "Oh wonderful," Caho said with a grimace.  "Because the easy part was such a cakewalk.  We needed the extra challenge to really feel rewarded for our efforts, right Captain?"

              "They won't sing songs about us later if we don't take any risks, Lieutenant," Elco replied with a fatherly smile.  "Only a day and a half and then we stand off and watch the planet they're headed for.  We'll need to be on our toes because Loren may or may not be able to get a good signal through when they leave again.  Just like we briefed; we'll watch every ship in and out, every long distance transmission, and decode everything we can.  If they leave by different means than the pirate frigate, we can't afford to lose them.  According to Velk, the best chances of success are if they head to Callidor.  If he's going to get anywhere with their Council, that's the place to be, so anything that looks like it's going that way is a priority as well.  You've trained some great sensor operators, but I'll need you ready to go whenever something interesting happens."

              "Well, I guess it's good job security for me."

              Elco chuckled and clapped her on the shoulder as he straightened up and took a half step aft to look at the main damaged control and status board.  Avenger still wasn't ready for a major engagement.  One laser battery was completely inop, two more were down to a single functioning barrel, and one of their mag shield generators was twitchy which was reducing their cloaking efficiency.  In addition, his ship was down to just three out of the four torpedo tubes fore and aft.  After years of war and sporadic yard time, his ship needed some serious TLC in a shipyard.  He and his whole crew should be getting gift baskets from grateful yard workers who would have months of secure work ahead of them with all the repairs Avenger deserved.  That of course was based on Avenger making it to a yard and not being yet another casualty of war in the meantime.

              The pirate frigate held on the outer fringes of the Moor System.  The place was  unremarkable; two planets at habitable distance, one a little too warm and the other a little too cold.  A few gas giants further out that provided mining opportunities.  The planets themselves were nice enough but attracted people who worked for the various interests there rather than people looking for a great place to start a new adventure.

              It was more popular as a stopover point where several commercial spacelanes converged, and as a result much of the local business was done among the dozens of immense high-orbit stations. 

              Since it was in conquered Enkarran space, it was now considered Priman territory.  While the Primans had done a masterful job of relocating or outright evicting dozens of Enkarran planets at the heart of their territory, planets like this one were lower on the list.  As such, the Enkarrans had already been moved to the colder of the two planets and now waited in limbo to see what their future held, while the Primans had settled in on the warmer of the two.  Traffic in and out of the system was locked down; unlike Callidor and some other possessions in neutral or Confed space, the Primans had no reason to make any sort of gestures with this system and the locals were simply unable to move.