My Other Car is a Spaceship (38 page)

H
e launched the remaining two modified missiles. Again they detonated, destroying the incoming missiles, as well as two APC emplacements.

“
We got all but one of the APCs, but missed three of the launchers.”

Kalen nodded.
“Let’s do it.”

Hal eased into the gap and
fired two more decoys. “That’s the last of them. This had better work.”

Seconds later, “Launching the nuke. Everyone hang on!”

He edged
Queen Anne’s Revenge
backward and to port, behind the nearest asteroid. “Five…four…three….” The decoys distracted two of the missiles and the APC, but the third missile kept coming. “Two…one….”

A split-second before the
final missile struck, the nuke detonated.

An incandescent point exploded outward at the speed of light with the force of
180,200 tons of TNT, shoving the surrounding asteroids apart. More importantly, the electromagnetic pulse fried the circuitry of the defensive weapons in the surrounding area.

And then some.

“Whoa!” Hal cried out as everything went black.

“What
the hell happened?” Kalen asked. “I thought we were shielded from the EMP.”

“So did I. Crap!” Hal grimaced.
“Well, that’s it then. Without power, we’re stuck here.” He sighed. “We gave it a pretty good run, but—”

“Don’t
give up just yet. We’re safe here for the moment. No one’s shooting at us and we have plenty of provisions.” Kalen shrugged. “We made it this far. We’ll figure something out.”

Hal nodded. “Let’s hope so. We’d better come up with a solution b
efore any more pirates arrive and blast our sorry asses from one asteroid to the nex—”

The lights on the bridge flickered and then came back on, along with the instrument consoles.

“What the hell?” Hal muttered under his breath. “How—?” He mentally checked the instrument readings.

“Ah, I see. The EMP didn’t actually
hit the
ship
. Part of the shield extended past the rim of the asteroid. The energy pulse from the EMP grossly overloaded that shield, which made the shield generator fail and caused a cascade effect of circuit breakers tripping all over the ship. But it wasn’t a case of fried circuits, just overloaded ones. The emergency generator kicked in and the circuits reset. There’s actually only minor damage, other than to—wouldn’t you know it—the starboard midship shield generator. It’s a goner.”

“Thank God,” Kalen replied with a nervous grin. “So the engines
and weapons are still operable?”

“As good as gold.
With all the defensive weapons destroyed, the lack of a shield shouldn’t be a problem. One more set of asteroids and we’re home free—the EMP should have fried anything in the area. I can extend the starboard fore and aft shields to cover the midsection, so we’re protected from meteoroids and background radiation. We should be fine for the trip back to headquarters where we can drop off our cargo of prisoners and get this baby into spacedock for repairs. In the meantime, I’ll get the repair team working on the stuff that shorted out.”

“
Good.” Kalen let his head fall against his seatback, eyes closed. “It’s hard to believe we actually survived all that.”

He shook his head in amazement. “Let’s get out of here before something else jumps up and tries to bite us.”

“Roger that!” Hal agreed as he urged the ship around the asteroid and into the void between.

Queen Anne’s Revenge
slipped between the final pair of asteroids with open space dead ahead.

“Yee-ha!” Hal crowed. “We made it!”

“I wouldn’t celebrate too much if I were you.”

Hal and Kalen whipped their heads around toward the doorway behind them.

“You!” Kalen exclaimed. “How—?”

“Yes, me,” Tarl Penrod replied with an easy grin. “I have to thank you both for rescuing me
and the other prisoners. Without your help, I’d have fried back there, along with poor Jern and the others.”

He waved his blaster loosely in the direction of the pilot and
Captain. “If you please….”

“Yes,”
Captain Tro agreed. He passed Penrod and strode onto the bridge. “I’d like my ship back now.”

He was followed by his pilot,
MosVeksal, who walked toward the pilot’s couch that Hal had just exited. Two other pirates stood on either side of the doorway, each armed with a blaster.

“These gent
lemen will escort you to the holding pens,” Penrod continued, “where the rest of your people await—once you’ve turned over command of the ship to Captain Tro and his pilot, that is.”

Hal looked to Kalen who shrugged helplessly. They were outnumbered five to two, and unarmed.

The ship bucked and hewed to port, throwing everyone on the bridge to the floor. The lights flickered and steadied.

“
Captain!” Hal shouted. “Missiles! From three of the closest asteroids. The launchers were on the far side, shielded from the EMP.”

As he regained his feet, h
e wanted to pounce on the pirates and try to wrest a weapon from one of them, but he had no choice in the matter—the ship came first. He returned fire on the defensive weapon emplacements with his APCs and the rear portside missile tube. The first pirate missile impact had shattered the rear starboard tube, along with several compartments. After a tense minute, in which the shields took several hits but no damage resulted, the battle was over.

“Whew! All clear,
Captain,” Hal said. He used the back of his sleeve to wipe sweat from his forehead. “We took a beating, but nothing that can’t be fixed.”

“Thank you once again,”
Captain Tro said with a nod. “Now, Captain, if you please.”

Kalen considerd refusing, but after a moment decided that doing so would likely result in his death and that of the other prisoners. It wouldn’t do much to hurt the pirates, as they would eventually find a way override the codes and regain control of the ship.

“Very well,” Kalen said with a sigh. He sent the correct authorization codes to the ship’s computer, which made the transfers.

“Thank you,” Tro acknowledged with a nod to
Captain Jeffries. “I think,” he said with a look to Penrod, “that given their service in rescuing you and saving my ship, we ought to be able to spare these two.”

Penrod’s eyes tightened, along with his mouth. “
Spare them?
Have you forgotten that these two are responsible for destroying
Smuggler’s Cove
in the first place? I ought to have them torn limb from limb for that!”

“Perhaps,”
Captain Tro replied. “You are the CEO of BAE Corporation; however, aboard this ship my word is law. And
I
say we spare them.”

Penrod
opened his mouth, then closed it. Tro’s crewmen on either side of him, guarding the doorway, had turned their blasters fractionally in his direction.

“Very well. I can afford to be merciful. We can rebuild the fortress, and without a
Merchants’ Unity to interfere, we’ll grow bigger and stronger than ever. I’ll concede that they won a major battle here, but we’ve won the war.”

The black-bearded pirate leader’s
face stretched in a broad grin. “Take them away.”

The two guards marched Kalen and Hal
to the holding pens at gunpoint.

With Tro’s guards gone, Penrod tried again. “I know you feel disposed to be lenient toward those two, Captain, but
I
don’t. They’ve been a thorn in our sides since the moment they arrived. Before we jump to hyperspace, I want you to shoot them and dump their bodies out an airlock. The rest we can sell as slaves and salvage
something
from this fiasco.”

“I—
” Tro began before Penrod cut him off.

“You may
be a god aboard this ship,
Captain
, but once we reach a pirate stronghold, I’m the king. I can have you and all your people shot for disobeying me. I want those two dead. That’s an order.”

Tro gritted his teeth as he thought over Penrod’s ultimatum.
“Yes, sir,” he replied with a sharp nod. “I will see to it personally as soon as we get the ship squared away.”

“
Good. As for how you managed to let them capture your ship, we’ll talk about that later. I’m going to my quarters.”

“So?” Hal asked in a soft voice, so as not to be heard by everyone. “Have you come up with a brilliant plan to get us out of this mess?”

He sat on a bunk in one of the two holding pens, accompanied by Kalen
, Mynax, and the rest of the prisoners on other bunks. Mynax leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, listening, but not participating.

Kalen
’s mouth quirked upward for a moment. “Nope. You?”

“Nope. I was just
feeling sorry for myself and thinking I could have been home tinkering with my bike and mowing the lawn. Instead I’m out here getting shot at every five minutes.”

“
Instead
you had the chance to fly a spaceship. How many people on Earth can make that claim? You got to see the universe and meet aliens. So what if a few of them decided to shoot at you? Isn’t this better than sitting in your easy chair, slowly rusting away until you’re some toothless old man drooling into your mush?”

“Well, since you put it that way….”
Hal grinned. “I guess this is
much
better. I’m really looking forward to being a slave on some backward planet where we can clear swamps or minefields for the rest of our lives—assuming they don’t just kill us instead.”

“That’s the spirit!” Kalen grinned back.

Hal snorted. “Okay, fine. But seriously, how
are
we going to get out of here?”

“O ye of little faith. Ask and ye shall receive.”

“All right, so you can quote scripture. What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

Kalen smiled. “All things come to those who wait.”

Hal rolled his eyes. “Meaning?”

“And five…four…three…two…one….
now!” Kalen pointed at the door to the cell.

A
t that exact moment, it opened. Some of the prisoners jumped up from their bunks. Others recoiled.

Hal’s jaw dropped. “How—? What—?”

Kalen grinned. “Piece of cake. When those last missiles attacked us, everyone was distracted for a minute. As we picked ourselves up off the floor, I gave
Queenie
a few final commands before I turned control of the ship over to Captain Tro. One was to unlock the holding cell in ten minutes. Knowing when that would be was simply a matter of consulting my implant.”

Hal’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “You have a definite future in magic. Nice bit of
legerdemain there.”

Kalen made a mock bow. “Thank you. And now—” He paused for a moment.
The ever-present, almost unnoticed background hum died. “That would be the hyper drive going offline until I give it the proper authorization code. That should keep the pirates busy for a while.”

“Sneaky. Still, w
e may have the pirates outnumbered three-to-one, but they’re armed and we’re not.”

“Not a problem. I also set a timer to unlock the weapons locker. We should be able to get what we need from there.”

“I’m impressed. That was pretty quick thinking, considering there were missiles flying every which way.”

“Thank you, kind sir.
It’s not exactly a brilliant plan, but it’s a foot in the door—or maybe
out
of
the door.” He winked. “Perhaps we’d better get going.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Nude, please keep Merry here. The rest of us will collect weapons and retake the ship—half to the bridge and half to the engine room. Let’s go.”

“Mos! What happened to the hyper drive?” Tro barked via his implant. He and two other pirates were halfway to the holding pens.

“Unknown, sir. The drive suddenly shut
down and went into diagnostic mode for some reason. I have been unable to re-engage it so far.”

“Jendor take him
! It has to be Jeffries’ doing. Will we never escape this system?” Tro sighed. “Very well. Find Jok and check out the drive.”

“Aye,
Captain! On my way.”

Tro
glared at the two pirates with him, a Sestran and a Thorian. “This has gone on long enough. Now we finish this.” The Melphim captain strode ahead on long legs. The shorter pirates hurried to keep up.

They arrived moments later at the
prisoners’ pen. Upon seeing the open doorway, the captain and his crew drew their weapons. Tro peered around the doorway and saw no one immediately, so he entered.

“Where
are
they? Where did they go?” He barked the questions at Nude, who knelt in a corner as far from the doorway as possible.

Nude had his
back turned to the pirates, his long arms wrapped around a trembling Merry. He stood and pushed Merry behind him. “They are not here.”

“I can
see
that, you fool!” Tro strode closer to the prisoners. “I asked you where they
are
, not where they are not!”

“I cannot tell you that.”

“Then you are of no use to me.”

Tro shot Nude in the chest. As the Chan’Yi crumpled, Tro reached behind him and grabbed Merry by the wrist. “Come with me!”

He yanked her along behind him toward the doorway.

“Nude! You hurt Nude!
You’re a bad man!”

She twisted and pulled,
kicked him in the shin, trying to break free from the hulking Captain’s grip. When that failed, she burst into tears and looked back over her shoulder.

“You hurt Nude….”

As they exited the holding pen, the sound of blaster fire came from the direction of the engine room. Tro turned the opposite way.

“Captain,” Sue said via the intercom, “we have taken the engine room.”

“Good. Thanks, Sue. Don’t let the pirates get in there.

“Yes, sir.”

Hal turned to Kalen on the bridge. “Okay, we hold the two most important parts of the ship. But without Tro’s command authorization, we can’t leave. Now what?”

Kalen grimaced in frustration. “Beats me. If we reactivate the drive, their pilot can fly the ship from anywhere. She doesn’t need to be on the bridge. So the drive has to stay offline for now. It’s a stalemate. No one’s going anywhere.”

Hal
sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

Mynax spoke for the first time. “There must be
something
we can do.”

Kalen shrugged. “I’m open to suggestions.”

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the intercom blared to life.

“
Captain Jeffries. This is Captain Tro. I have the human child. It is time we talked.”

Kalen and Hal exchanged worried looks.

“Where’s Dr. Chalmis’Noud’Ourien?” Kalen asked.

“He…will not be joining us.”

“You bastard!” Hal shouted.

“Hal! Not now,” Kalen rebuked.
“Come up to the bridge, Captain. We’ll talk here.”

“On my way. We will be there shortly.”

Kalen cut the connection.

“He killed Nude!” Hal seethed.

“I heard what he said. He didn’t say anything about killing Nude. He may be unconscious or tied up somewhere. We can’t jump to conclusions.”

“It wasn’t so much
what
he said, as
how
he said it. Nude’s dead.”

“Again, we can’t worry about that right now. We have to regain control of this ship.
Then
we can go looking for Nude.
Got it?
” Kalen spoke the latter with his command voice, which brooked no argument.

Hal took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Roger.”

“Good.”

“
Speaking of ‘good,’ this would be a good time for that brilliant plan,” Hal prompted.

“Sure would,” Kalen agreed. “Got one?’

“Nope.”

“Me neither.”

The three men, accompanied by nine other armed former prisoners waited with grim looks on their faces and gripped their blasters all the tighter.

Tro arrived a minute later, holding Merry by the shoulder and accompanied by the other two pirates. The foursome stood just inside the doorway, so as not to be completely surrounded by the ex-prisoners. Everyone but Merry held a blaster pointed at someone else on the bridge.

She
merely trembled.

“We
appear to have a situation here,” Kalen stated. “You control the ship’s authorization codes, but we control the hyper drive. Without both, neither of us can leave this system. Also, we have the only pilot aboard. Yours was just killed attacking the engine room.”

Tro’s eyes opened wide at this latter piece of news, and then narrowed
as his implant calls to Mos went unanswered.

“So it would seem.
We negotiated once. I see no reason we cannot do so again. However, my terms have changed. Now I want full amnesty for myself and these two, against all crimes past and present,
and
a ride to the planet of my choosing. Those are my terms. Meet them and the authorization codes are yours. Fail to meet them, and none of us leaves this system—ever. If I am to die anyway, I would rather die at the time and place of my own choosing and take you with me.”

Kalen looked to Mynax, acting head of t
he Merchants’ Unity.

Mynax shrugged. “If that’s what it takes to end this.”

“Very well,” Kalen agreed. “Now, as a show of faith, let us have the girl.”

Tro snorted. “What, so the
twelve of you can shoot the three of us? I think not.”

Kalen shook his head. “We wouldn’t risk Merry by shooting at you. Besides, as an officer of the
Merchants’ Unity, I swear you will not be harmed. Everyone….” He looked around the bridge at all his people. “Lower your weapons.”

As soon as
they did so, Tro released Merry, who ran straight to Kalen.

Kalen acknowledged his act with a nod. “Thank you,
Captain Tro. Now, if you would be so kind as to transfer the command authorization to me, we can conclude this negotiation.”

“Of course,
Captain Jeffries. I—”

“Traitor!”

Tro spun on his heel just in time to take a blaster load to the chest, followed by another. He fell back onto the bridge, his chest a smoking ruin. Two more quick shots took care of the pirates standing on either side of him. Another blast whizzed past him and struck Tep Movoo.

In the span of a tenth of a second, nine blaster bolts tore into the assailant in the corridor, nearly vaporizing him above the waist.

As quickly as that, it was all over.

“
What—? What happened?” a shaking Mynax asked. Who
was
that?”

Hal and Kalen walked to where the corpse lay. Hal used a toe to turn the head, which had but a piece of neck
skin still attached to it. A strong face with brown eyes stared sightlessly above a neatly trimmed black beard and blaster-burned cheek.

“This,” Hal announced with satisfaction, “is—or rather
was
—Tarl Penrod, king of the pirates. The king is dead. Long live the king.”

“Okay, great,” Mynax agreed. “The head pirate is dead, the ship’s
Captain is dead, the ship’s pilot is dead, and most if not all of the other pirates on this ship are dead. But we’re still screwed. Without the authorization codes, we’re dead in the water—accent on
dead
.”

Kalen smiled. “Fortunately not.
Captain Tro didn’t die instantly. He lived a few seconds after being shot, and that was enough time to transfer command authorization to me.” Kalen grew serious. “He may have been a pirate and a murderer, but there was still some honor in him. He could have taken satisfaction from knowing that we would die as well, but he kept his end of the bargain.”