Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (33 page)

"I
say," added Derrik, “I really don't fancy going down
without at
least
giving the bastards a black eye..."

"Well,"
interrupted Maria, "I suppose we could fly the shuttles if we
could
find some hardware to put on them..."

"Oh,
I say! Steady on, Missy! I mean a jokes a joke, old girl, but you
can't
seriously consider flying one of those bloody sausages into a
swirl... it's simply daft!"

"Quit
being a pansy!" Maria lashed.

"A
pansy!? Your crackers woman! It would be plain suicide. Maybe
you've
had a bit too much juice... are you blotto again?" He gripped
Jack's shoulder. "I say, Jack, you need to keep this girl off
the sauce!"

"I
haven't had a drop!"

"Oh,
right-o, and I'm Winston Churchill."

Jack
couldn't take any more and threw his hands up in the air in a
gesture
of frustration. "
OK
!
That's enough! Everybody just shut the hell up!"

"Thank
you," said Pappy, then he addressed Gant. "Before we know
if
we have any options or not, we need to know what we're up against.
What else is out there besides those fighters? Who are we waiting
for?"

Gant
wiped his forehead again. "The mother ship. She's a Raider
class
cruiser. She'll be here in about fifteen minutes."

"How
big, size-wise, is she?"

Gant
glanced uncertainly at Raulya then back to Paul and shrugged.
"Considerably
smaller than our physical size, but with enough firepower to blow us
into asteroid dust. Why?"

Pappy
shook his head. "No reason... yet. The more information
the
better. Sometimes the most obvious or inane piece of information can
be the most important. You can never know too much about your
enemy."

"True,"
agreed Jack. "So, if we're going to survive this, we'd
better
sit down and talk. Fast. We need to know everything you know about
pirate tactics, equipment, habits... Maybe we can find some weakness
we can use."

Pappy
jumped back in. "I think the first thing we have to
acknowledge
is that we can't fight them on their terms. We'll lose. We need them
to come down to our level somehow, because that will even out the
odds a bit."

"Right,
exactly. Familiar territory, so to speak."

Paul
was speaking from the military level, and Jack was speaking
from
a law enforcement level, but for some reason, the two facets seemed
to go together very well. It also appeared the two men were
understanding each others' concepts as they were presented.
Something rather important seemed to be formulating in regards to a
plan of action and Gantarro could almost see the electricity between
the two pilots.

The
others remained quiet, watching and listening with intense
interest.
Gantarro explained that there were many different types of pirates,
and there were actually some with ethics and a certain moral code,
twisted though it may be. But recently a new breed had been
emerging, ruthless and violent, born of necessity to survive the
treachery of certain types of smuggling. These had no conscience.
The smell of blood and killing of the defenseless held a thrill for
them.

Raulya
explained that the tactics were as varied as the types of
pirates
and depended upon the circumstances and equipment at hand. In
general, there would be an armed boarding party, whose size was
rarely predictable. Their job would be to seize control of the ship,
whether it be by force or co-operation, then the officers would
board to direct the operations of their salvage and seizure crews.
At this point things got completely unpredictable. Sometimes entire
ships were confiscated and their crews either executed or sold into
slavery. In most cases, they would take what and who they wanted,
using shuttles for transports, then depart. Smaller pirate vessels
had been known to land in a victim's flight bay, fill their own ship
to capacity and then leave.

Myomerr
speculated since they were near a Genesis Gate, on a well
traveled
route, and the Princess had already broadcast a distress call, the
pirate Captain would opt for a fast score and be off.

Jack
shook his head. "Why? It's just as easy for him to commandeer
us
and move away from the trade route. He'd have all the time in the
world."

"Or
take the whole ship," added Paul. "It would make a
tremendous
mobile
base of operations."

"He
may not have the manpower," interrupted Gant. "Many pirate
crews
are
understaffed."

"Yeah,"
said Jack with a smile, "but maybe, like many criminals, he's
got
an ego. A
big
ego, maybe too big for his own good. I used to see it all the time.
They get cocky, think they're invincible. Then they get stupid, make
stupid mistakes."

"Geez,
that's a lot of maybes," said Maria sarcastically, shaking
her
head. "I hope you've got something more solid than that."

Paul
shushed her with a wave of his hand. "I can see your wheels
turnin',
Jack. Whatcha got in mind?"

Jack
Steele was having a difficult time containing a Cheshire Cat
grin,
and it showed. The idea had just hit him. It was so obvious he was
amazed he hadn't thought of it earlier. As he explained it, it
became even clearer. "Look, a criminal uses a weapon not only
as a physical but as a psychological means of leverage to accomplish
his goal. More often than not, goals revolve around obtaining
material objectives. Why? Greed, plain and simple. That is
our
leverage. To make
him
vulnerable, we need to give him a prize large enough, worth enough,
that he has to put down his weapon to pick it up. This is where
we'll find out how good our acting abilities are...."

Jack
paused to let all this sink in and give him a moment to
formulate
his conclusion. The room was so quiet, if someone had dropped a pin
it would have made a deafening racket. When the door from the bridge
swished open, everyone jumped. The Security Warrant Officer stepped
halfway through the door. "They're here..."

"Thank
you," said Gant, rising. The Warrant Officer left and the door
closed
again, leaving them in an uneasy silence. Gant stepped over to a
small view screen and turned it on. The pirate cruiser was slowing
to a stop abreast of the Princess. She was dark and menacing. Though
much smaller than the Princess Hedonist, the cruiser bristled with
enough firepower to easily destroy the luxury liner. "Oh no..."
whispered Gant. While everyone peered at the image, only Raulya and
Myomerr seemed to have the same opinion as the Captain of the
Princess Hedonist.

"What
is it?" asked Brian, who had moved next to Raulya to get a
better
view.

"It's
the Ynosa..."

"You
know this ship?" asked Paul.

Myomerr
nodded, stroking her whiskers, "She's changed a bit, but
yes,
we all do. Raulya and I both, served on her. She was a UFW cruiser."

"You
mean she's gone renegade?"

"No,"
said Gant, staring at the screen. "She disappeared in battle
over
a year ago. All hands were expected lost. Heavily damaged, her
communications dead, she drifted out of the battle without power and
was never seen again. It was widely thought the Ynosa
disintegrated... That's fairly common with her level of damage.
Power plants race unrestrained, with no load and no place to dump
the overflow of energy, they go into a meltdown. Not a pleasant way
to go. We all had friends on her..."

"I'm
sorry," said Jack, knowing the words to be inadequate.

Gant
shook his head and took a deep breath as if putting away the
memories,
"No..." he held up a hand in dismissal, "no
regrets..." He turned back to the group. "Ok, they'll
contact us when they're ready. Where were we? Ah yes. Mr Steele,
tell us more about the acting abilities we're going to need... and
this wonderful prize we're to tempt them with." His smile had
returned. He was feeling devious. Maybe this was a chance to even
the score for all those ghosts that walked through his mind.

It
was as clear as a bell now, the whole plan. There were lots of
variables,
of course, not every circumstance could be accounted for. There
would be some instances that would require thinking on the run. But,
all in all, a very probable plan. Jack was feeling very confident
and doing his Cheshire Cat impression again. "Ok, so, this is
what we need to do..."

■ ■ ■

The
pirate Captain's face would be larger-than-life on the bridge's
vidscreen,
but Jack and the other pilots watched on the small monitor in
Gantarro's ready room. With the split screen function, the pilots
could see and hear Gant as well as the pirate.

Using
a set of small, remote communication headsets, one with the
microphone
removed, Jack could speak to Gant without the pirate's knowledge.
This allowed him to audio-prompt Gant in case something came up that
hadn't been discussed, which might in turn, alter the plan. The
biggest concern was, of course that the pirates would simply blast
holes in the Princess for grins and giggles. For the moment, the
vidscreen was focused on the pirate vessel sedately floating in
space abreast of the much larger Princess Hedonist.

Gant
had returned to the bridge, leaving the pilots and security
people
to their discussions in his ready room. Unfortunately, there was not
much to talk about until they were contacted by the pirates. So they
waited. Chatting uneasily, with awkward silences, they stared at the
viewer to see if anything changed. Several people jumped when the
buzz of the intercom panel interrupted one of those silences. Jack
reached over to the desk and pushed the button to answer the call.
He could feel his heart thudding in his chest, hoping it was the
landing bay crew calling to tell him the preparations he'd ordered
were finished. It was and they were.

"Good
news?" asked Brian.

Jack
smiled as he pushed the button to disconnect the call. "So far,
so
good."

Paul
stood up and stretched. "So what now?"

Jack's
smile had not faded and he thumbed at the vidscreen. "We
wait
for General Custer..." Nervous laughter circulated through the
room.

"Check
it out," said Mike, who had been examining the pirate vessel
on
the screen. "It actually has a skull and crossbones on it."

"Get
outta' here..."

"No,
really, I'm not kidding... look." He tapped his finger on the
vidscreen.
Everyone moved closer to get a better look and Raulya adjusted the
control to enlarge the picture.

"He's
right," said Pappy. Jack nodded absentmindedly, staring at
the
screen and pulled on his lower lip.

"So,
what's the big deal?" asked Maria.

"Well
it
is
a bit odd..." began Brian.

Jack
broke his silence and agreed with Brian, "Damn right it's odd,
it's
downright strange! We're out in space a zillion miles from home, and
there's some guy using an insignia originally used by pirates in
Earth's seventeenth century. Christ, I find that pretty incredible!
Don't you?"

It
was obvious by their expressions that they were beginning to
realize
how bizarre that really was, but before the discussion could get any
further the vidscreen flickered and the ship disappeared. It was
replaced by the face of the pirate Captain.

"Look,
he's human!" Indeed he was. A shock of curly reddish-brown
hair
hung to his shoulders, a thick mustache underlined his strong nose
and a well trimmed King Arthur style beard accentuated his jawline.
His eyes were dark and flashing. He wore a loose, white silk shirt
with large billowing sleeves, ruffles around the cuffs and ruffles
down the front.