Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (14 page)

              “Habitable planet?” the captain asked.  “We’ve never gone through Amethyst before.”

              “You’re awfully inquisitive,” Jax answered.  “But for your information, no, there’s no habitable planet.  Just a way station.”

              “Too bad.  I could use some replacements as well.”  Eamonn made it sound as though a few people had quit the ship’s company and he need to find more, as though it was just a regular occurrence.  Not that twenty-six people had been brutally executed.  “But if it’s only a way station then I would like to suggest our next port of call.”

              Jax shook his head.  “Oh, but I thought you were the
captain
, Captain,” he said mockingly.

              “Good, then we’ll head for Seylonique.”

              The Armsman exchanged glances with his fellow, who shrugged.  “Why there?”

              “Because the locals owe me money,” he said truthfully.  “We fixed up one of their ships a few months back.  They owe me.”

              Jax nodded slowly.  “And you think that by going there, you can convince them to pony up?”

              It was Eamonn’s turn to shrug.  “We would have gone there straight from Ulla-tran if the excitement hadn’t occurred.”

              “I see.”  Jax pursed his lips, seeming to consider.  “Well, I have no other orders aside from dropping off the fuel at Amethyst.  I was hoping that we’d have an escort, but since
Ravage
got herself captured by the Republic, we’re going to be a bit light.  You sure this tub can make it?”

              “You just worry about your people,” the Captain said, caustically.  “I’ll worry about my ship.”

              Jax stepped right up to the other man, and Eamonn had to force himself to hold his ground.  “You don’t tell me what to do,
Captain
.”  His breath was hot on Eamonn’s face and it was all the captain could do not to pull away.  “Ever.”  He held the Captain’s gaze for a long moment, then turned away, deliberately putting his back to the merchant spacer. 

              Eamonn gulped a breath, then turned and walked out of the compartment.  He heard the two men behind him chuckle evilly.  When he was far enough down the passage, he clenched his fists to stop them from shaking.  “Damn, damn, damn!”

Chapter 5

              Eamonn went from the lounge compartment straight to the brig.  The guards at the door grunted and tried to look threatening but he ignored them.  They didn’t stop his entering the brig, though one of them did get on his communicator, presumably telling Jax about their uninvited guest.  He walked swiftly inside, and up to cell two, where the lupusan were being held.

              He rapped on the metal of the door with one knuckle.  Immediately, there was a scuffling noise from within and then Corajen’s dark muzzle appeared in the slot.  “Captain!  It is good to see you, sir,” she said gruffly.  “You hear for a jailbreak?”

              His heart sank.  “No, Corajen.  I’m sorry.  The bastards have outright told me, I let you out, they kill you in the very next second.”

              She paused.  “I think I might want to stay in here a little while longer, Captain, if it’s all the same to you.”

              He nodded.  “I’m sorry,” he repeated.  “I want you out of there and I want those bastards off my ship.”

              “I know, Captain.  We’ve been going crazy in here, but not as much as she has,” Corajen flicked her muzzle in the direction of one of the other cell.

              “Speak for your damned self!” Saiphirelle called from the back of the cell.  “I want out of this fucking box.”

              Eamonn chuckled.  “I’m doing everything I can to get you out.  We’re on our way to Amethyst and once the Chief gets the overhauls to the shields done, we’re jumping back to a faster hyperspeed.”

              The lupusan grunted.  “Figured as much, boss.  Then what?”

              “Seylonique,” he told her.

              He could see her ears flick back in confusion, then her eyes brightened.  “
Kara
.”

              “That’s right,” he said.  “They’re going to repay us for the work we did for them.”  He tried to put as much meaning into his expression as he could.  She nodded almost imperceptibly.  “And then we’re going to carry on.”

              She nodded again.  “I understand, Captain.  Any idea when that might be?”

              Eamonn shook his head.  “I’m afraid not.  Just hold it together a little longer.”

              But Corajen was unceremoniously shoved aside.  “This is bullshit, Captain!” Saiphirelle barked, naked fury in her eyes, ears folded back against her head.  “We’re stuck in this box because the pirates are scared of us and you’re not doing anything about it!  Doing everything you can?  You’re not doing
anything
from where I’m standing.”  She was giving off that serious predator vibe.

              Eamonn stood there, looking at her for a very long moment.  Saiphirelle maintained eye contact but her menace was dampened somewhat by the metal door separating them.  “Take a step
back
, Specialist,” he ordered, stepping right up to the door, his nose less than ten centimeters from the slot.  “Now.”  A growl came from her throat, but he refused to back down.  In fact, he growled back at her.  “Step
back
, Specialist.”

              He could see into the cell and could see Corajen sitting on the bunk, arms gripping the bunk’s edge.  However he could also see that she was listening intently to the conversation, interested to hear what her Captain would have to say.

              With a snort, Saiphirelle pushed back from the door, but her gaze and demeanor didn’t change.  “You’re lucky there’s this door between us… meat,” she breathed.

              That actually forced a bubble of laughter up and Eamonn didn’t fight it.  The lupusan’s eye’s narrowed further.  A quick glance showed that Corajen looked upset at the Captain’s turn as well.  “After all I’ve been through in the last few weeks, do you think anything you do is going to frighten me?  At all?”  He pointed to the cell across the way.  “After what she’s been through because of what I…”  He broke off.  “No, Specialist.  You don’t frighten me anymore.”

              “You let me out of this box and I promise I’ll change your mind, meat,” she said, her voice almost a purr.  “I…
promise.
”

              Eamonn laughed again, though it sounded almost like a sob.  “Just keep it together a little longer, you two.  I promise I’ll bring you a cake as soon as I can.”

              The two wolf women looked at each other, but didn’t say anything as he walked away.  “What the hell was that?” Saiphirelle demanded.  “He’s going to bring us cake?”

              Corajen forced herself to calm down.  “Maybe it’ll have a file in it.”

              The captain walked over to the other cell, his posture indicated he was going to open the cell to look in on the other prisoner.  The guards were instantly on their feet, weapons drawn but not pointed.  “Move along… meat,” one of them told him, using Saiphirelle’s word.  He glared at them, and threw a nasty glance back in the direction of the lupusan cell, then walked out of the brig. 

              The work continued.  Quesh and Ka’Xarian finished the install on the shield nodes, but it took an entire day to integrate them properly into the ship’s existing shield grid.  This caused a massive row between Jax and the Captain, who actually got into a shouting match over the issue.  There was nothing for it, however, since the engineers would not release the ship to hyperspace until the shields were taken care of.  The pirate Armsman knew that the ship couldn’t fly without shields, though he was certain that the crew was stalling.  This suspicion was only reinforced when the Parkani put a stop to plans for jump when a host of cracks and microfractures were discovered on one of the trusses holding the topside hyperdrive nacelle on.  More work had to be done to remove the engine, then remove the truss, get the metal support down to the replicators for breakdown.

              “Just jump without the second engine,” Jax demanded after the third day of sitting idle in the void.  He was chafing at the delays and knew,
knew
, that the people on this ship were stalling just to try and buy time to get loose from his grip.  “You have two hyperspace engines, just jump without the second one.”

              The captain shook his head.  “Do you have any idea how you sound?  This ship is huge, as you well know.  With only one hyperspace engine giving us thrust our speed will be cut to less than half our best speed.  Half.”

              “That’s ridiculous,” the pirate said, though taken back by the merchant captain’s vehemence.  “Your engineer is stalling.”

              “Do you want to be flying along at an even slower speed than we were at before?” Eamonn shot back. 

              “We have wasted nearly a week with these
repairs
,” Jax spat.  “What is it you expect to accomplish with all this?”

              Eamonn looked at the other man as though he had grown another head.  “Can you hear yourself right now?  What the hell do you think I mean to accomplish?  I want to get my ship back up to speed so that we can get out of the void and back into hyper.  And I want to get where we’re going in less than six months.”

              “Then we jump now and your engineers can reinstall the nacelle while we’re in hyper.”

              But the captain shook his head.  “It doesn’t work that way.  Once we jump, no one can go out of the ship.  We’d have to stop again to replace the components and that’s just another waste of time.”

              Jax’s eyes narrowed.  “You seem to have grown a spine in the last few days.  Make sure it doesn’t get you killed.”  Without another word, he left the room, leaving the captain to stare at his retreating form in astonishment.  In days gone by, Jax would have pounded the Captain for daring to stand up to him, but now he simply had an argument and then left the room after a snide comment.  Clearly something more was going on.

              During all this time, Jax had been in high dudgeon, in supreme control of himself, his men and the situation as a whole.  Now, however, his hostility had increased and the leash was slipping.  More and more instances occurred of crewmen coming into sickbay nursing bruises or other contusions, male and female.  The females of the ship’s company had started moving around in groups; no one wanted to be caught alone in a passageway or a compartment.  No one had been raped or killed yet, but the random attacks were becoming more frequent.  Crewmen lowered their eyes every time they passed one of the pirates in the ship’s corridors and everyone made sure not to make eye contact if they were in the same compartment.  Morale was plummeting faster and something needed to happen and soon.

              But for now, repairs were moving apace, and things seemed to coming around a corner.  Once they reached Amethyst, of course things would change and probably in rapid succession.  If it was true that Jax intended to bring on more of Verrikoth’s bully boys then the problems and the tension might just ratchet back up.  No, they
would
ratchet up, there was no doubt.  Eamonn sighed.  There was nothing to be done at this point, unless he was willing to throw caution to the wind and try and retake the ship.  With so few pirates, they might never get a better chance than this.

              He stopped in the mess hall, seeing Cookie standing over a large pot of stew, grumbling to himself as he threw in some spices.  Eamonn walked over, staying on the outer side of the galley steam tables, which were switched off at this time.  Dinner mess wasn’t for another three hours, and lunch cleanup had just been completed a short while ago. 

              “Hard at work already, Cookie?”

              The chef turned and looked over.  “Captain!  I’m surprised to see you here in my galley.”

              He shrugged in return.  “Just thought I’d come down, see how you are.”

              Cookie’s eyebrow shot up.  “And that’s all?”  He flicked his glaze to a view behind the captain.

              The captain glanced over at the pair of pirate soldiers sitting at the table closest to the door.  They didn’t appear to be doing anything important, just sitting and drinking coffee.  “How long have they been there?”

              “Since about halfway through lunch.  They ate, they tossed their trays on nearby tables and then got coffee.  They plunked themselves back down at that table and haven’t moved for almost an hour now.”

              Eamonn turned and looked at them, and they looked right back.  A pair of zheen, coffee mugs on the table in front of them.  Their carapaces were a dusky mauve festooned with white scratches, most probably from various scrapes they’d been in.  They were wearing the same surcoat as their fellows, but had bandoliers and pouches on, holding weapons, ammo and other trinkets that they didn’t want to have off their person.  Zheen tended to look intimidating to most humans and these two were certainly no exception.  However, having served on the
Grania Estelle
for years with a number of zheen, much of the mystique and ability to terrorize had worn away from the race as a whole.  They were no better than any other thugs that the captain had dealt with in the past, and while they might be nasty customers, they didn’t cause him to clench up in fear.  He gave them a lazy salute, two fingers up to his brow.  They chittered at him, their taloned hands gripping their weapons, antennae curling in anger.

              “I can chat in about an hour, Captain, when my boys come back on to help with the dinner mess.  For now I have to take care of this,” he gestured with his free hand over to the stew pot.  “And then I have a few other things to take care of.  But in about an hour I should be free.”

              Eamonn nodded.  “That should be all right.”  He pointed to the ready cooler off to the side.  “Still got sandwiches in there?”

              Cookie chuckled.  “Of course.  Might be running a bit low, but still should be a few in there.  I’m not going to let my crew go hungry, Captain.”

              “Thanks, Cookie.  Meet me in my quarters when you get done here.”  He stepped over to the cooler and divested it of a pair of cold cut sandwiches, and a piece of yakna fruit.  He saluted the pirates again, who clacked their mandibles at him in disgust.

              A short while later, the two men were in the Captain’s cabin.  He had tidied up a bit, the bottles had been tossed in for recycling, and he’d had one of the cleaner bots give the whole stateroom a thorough scrub.  It no longer smelled like the bottom of a barroom trash can and even the clothes and sheets had been properly laundered.  At the time, Eamonn didn’t care at all what anyone thought; he was too wrapped up in his own grief and self-pity over the whole situation in the cargo bay.  Now, however, in hindsight, he was embarrassed at his antics and the state he’d allowed himself to drift into. 

              Cookie nodded in approval at the other man’s stateroom.  “I’m glad to see you’re looking better, Captain.  I was worried about you.”

              “I’m still worried about me, Cookie, as well as everyone else,” Eamonn replied, perching on the edge of the bed.  He motioned for the other man to sit at one of the chairs at the small table.  “Now, I know that you and a couple of others have been plotting while your Captain has been wallowing in self-pity.”

              The chef chuckled.  “Yes, Captain, we have.”