Pirate Stars

by Andrew van Aardvark

  All had gone smoothly both with their departure from Pedlar's Haven and then the jump from the Spice system to this desolate infrequently traveled system with its dim M2 primary and lack of any useful planets. There was every reason to believe that jump had gone unobserved. The crew was happy and performing well.

  In short all was nominal. There was no reason to be unhappy and yet she was.

  Another sparring session with Sheena in the ship's gym had tired her out in a physically pleasant way. It'd drawn a few admiring spectators from among the crew working out. That pleased Jeannie. She wanted the crew to see her in a positive light.

  But as she sat on her bunk and inspected the walls of her quarters she realized it hadn't settled whatever was on her nerves.

  It wasn't the ship, or crew's performance, or any doubts about the plans for the expedition. No she was happy with all those.

  She wasn't unhappy with herself either. Whatever her imperfections, especially when it came to dealing with others, she felt she was doing well enough. In truth not much had yet been required of her beyond the decision to depart as soon as Chang's Venture was ready.

  With regards to her ship's officers, she found the engineer and purser both a bit smug and set in their ways, and the first officer in contrast to be somewhat lacking in confidence. Despite that they were all highly competent and trustworthy.

  It was Captain Lee that was making her uneasy.

  It was true that she and Captain Lee were very different. Different background, different temperaments, different ways of thinking, but Jeannie didn't think that was it.

  She prided herself on being able to be utterly cold and logical.

  Yes it could be a problem. She had to remember that generally people weren't and that she had to examine things emotionally as well as logically when dealing with people. It didn't console a young would be friend to be told just after her kitten Mittens had died that kittens were accident prone and short lived anyways.

  It was well known that hyper rational high intelligence tended to be linked to an autistic deficit in being to read other people's emotions. Her father had had her tested for it.

  He'd shared the results of those tests with her. Her innate ability to read and understand other people's emotions was well within normal parameters.

  Her problem, if it was such, was not in her innate genetic predisposition, it was that her relative social isolation and well developed intellect might lead her to neglect the importance of people's feelings.

  She didn't think that was the issue with Captain Lee.

  No, she felt that Captain Lee was hiding something. Something besides the fact that she felt shouldn't have to be taking orders from an arrogant young women without half of her qualifications.

  It wasn't a feeling she could nail down rational reasons for. It was more instinctual pattern matching than logical.

  The captain felt more wary than resentful of her. Her argument against the on time departure had been pro forma. She hadn't argued her case with any force, just mentioned it really. The distance she kept was cold not hot, she was more careful than impatient in discussions with Jeannie.

  Like the one they'd had about the Chang's Venture's planned path out across the frontier. The captain had been almost approving when Jeannie suggested a less than direct route through infrequently traveled systems. She'd presented some obvious counter arguments but without any real heat or force.

  It didn't make sense. Jeannie had no real ability to hurt the captain's career at this point. Why would the captain be worried by her?

  Jeannie would have to watch the woman closer for clues. She also planned to quietly revisit all the decisions she'd made with the captain including their planned route. It'd be natural to talk with First Officer Okoro about that.

  Jeannie prided herself on being logical.

  Didn't mean she'd ignore her gut when it spoke up.

  * * *

  It was morning. Lieutenant Sven Torson stood at the head of a long Earth wood conference table, the centerpiece of a conference room. The main conference room of the SDF base at Huygen's Station as it happened. He was on the spot.

  The room was filling with the mostly tired and hungover members of Task Force 39's staff. That staff answered to Commodore Darius Zanjani who'd just arrived. He looked well rested and sharp. The commodore was not one to slight his duties.

  Currently the commodore's primary duty was to rid Epsilon sector of pirates. Most of his staff believed, with some reason, that he'd already succeeded in that. Torson did not.

  The commodore said something to his Chief of Staff and shortly bodies began to seat themselves. The chatter all died.

  "Okay, Lieutenant Torson," Commodore Zanjani said. "What do you have for us?"

  "A big unpleasant mystery I'm afraid, sir," Torson replied. That elicited some irate grunts from around the table.

  "Enough," Commodore Zanjani said. "I expect everybody to be professional here. I want facts and solid rational arguments, not gut feelings originating in too much booze. Please, Sven continue."

  Well, Torson couldn't help thinking, somehow the commodore had anticipated his conclusions and was likely going to act on them if Torson made his case properly. He only hoped it wasn't going to chill his relationship with his fellow officers even more. That relationship was already cool enough.

  "Sir. Thank you, sir," Torson said aloud. "I'd like to start with some good news first. Put everyone in a better mood to digest the rest of my report."

  "That'll be a change," interjected a Lieutenant, Conner Hopkins by name. He was Task Force 39's Intelligence Officer. He was mostly adequate at the job.

  "I like to provide a little variety when I can," Torson replied.

  "Lieutenant Torson's intelligence has helped save lives. Lives belonging to marines of mine. Saved them many times over," Marine Lieutenant Colonel Jack Thompson said. "I'll take that over unjustified optimism every day of the week." Hopkins turned red in response.

  "Gentlemen," Commodore Zanjani said. "Please, let Lieutenant Torson get on with his presentation."

  "Well, sir," Torson said. "My people are at least as pleased with Lieutenant Colonel Thompson's marines as the marines are with us. They did a fine job not just of killing pirates, but of capturing high value prisoners, and of taking the pirate records intact. It was of inestimable value."

  "Hear, hear," the Ops Officer said. "A hand for the marines." Polite applause seconded his sentiment. The troops were rowdy this morning.

  Torson turned to the display taking up most of the wall behind him. "My staff has gone over that data with a fine toothed comb and diced and sliced it in every manner conceivable. We do not believe any ships belonging to the five pirate bands whose bases we took have managed to escape."

  A muttered "Thank God" came from someone. The Chief of Staff looked around with a glare, but apparently failed to locate the guilty party.

  "That's very good news," Commodore Zanjani said. "A little surprising, however, why are you so sure?"

  Torson turned to the display on the wall behind him. "As you can see on the display here my staff managed an extremely complete reconstruction of all the operations of those five pirate bands over the last several years."

  "They kept complete detailed records of illegal activities?" Lieutenant Hopkins asked in a skeptical tone.

  "Yes, they did," Torson replied. "As surprising as it may seem we've verified that by several means. We checked the extensive records we found for each band for consistency. Internal consistency, consistency against those of other bands, and consistency against the public record. Our methods are explained in a rather long and technical appendix, but my staff is absolutely convinced the records the marines captured for us are both authentic and complete."

  "So your only proof is a statistical document analysis only a few pointy headed math geeks can hope to understand?" Lieutenant Hopkins said.

  Torson noticed the Chief of the Staff glancing at the commodore. The commodore gave
a slight shake of the head in reply. They were going allow Hopkins his head. Torson didn't mind, the man was poorly armed for a battle of wits and would serve as a useful foil.

  "I am fortunate to have some of the finest graduates of both Newton's and Earth's best universities on staff," Torson replied. "Admiral Arain has already arranged that Dr. Itzhak Klien head of the Digital Forensics Lab at the University of Newton at New Cambridge, and Dr. Edmund Birkenholtz who holds the post of data analytics in the Department of Linguistics of the University of Cambridge back on Earth should both review our work. I'm convinced they'll confirm the validity of my staff's analysis."

  "Those are impressive titles but should academics be telling Navy officers how to run operations?" Lieutenant Hopkins asked.

  Torson smiled. If Hopkins had been less of an ass he'd have felt bad about letting him embarrass himself so badly. As it was he had to be careful not to make him look any worse than necessary. Naval officers were expected to have each other's backs. That meant they were usually careful not to embarrass each other. Hopkins could end up making both himself and Torson look bad.

  "Both Dr. Klien and Dr. Birkenholtz are high level consultants regularly used by the SDFHQ's general staff," Torson said. "It's understandable you may not have heard of them as both the work they do for the SDF and the means they use are highly classified."

  "I see," Lieutenant Hopkins said. He looked about. He continued gamely. "Must be nice to have resources like that on tap. Wish we'd known about them earlier."

  "Admiral Arain believed that better than usual intelligence was essential to eliminating the pirate threat in this sector," Torson said. "He also insisted on extraordinarily tight operational security. In particular he insisted on tight compartmentalization and a strict conservative application of the need to know principle."

  "That's fine in theory," Lieutenant Hopkins said, "but we all know in practice it hinders effective co-operation between different parts of an organization."

  "I agree," Torson said. "I regret that, but it was the Admiral's wish. In any event we didn't rely solely on analysis of captured data. We also carefully interviewed our prisoners. We didn't let them talk to each other and we subjected them to multiple interviews each. Those prisoner interviews backed up what we found in the records."

  "And what was that Lieutenant Torson?" Commodore Zanjani asked. Apparently he'd decided it was time to move things on.

  "The pirate bands all reacted to our campaign in the same way," Torson said. "They pulled all their ships back to their hidden bases. They thought if they laid low the storm would pass. They didn't think we'd attack their bases. It seems they couldn't really believe we'd defeat them if we did."

  "Seems these pirates weren't that clever," Lieutenant Hopkins said.

  "They certainly all made the same fundamental strategic error," Torson said. "That cost them everything, but it was an understandable error. They'd been getting away with this sort of thing for generations. It's not surprising they didn't realize Admiral Arain had succeeded in convincing SDFHQ to put together a Task Force big enough and tough enough to handle them."

  "It's certainly been an outstanding privilege to command Task Force 39," Commodore Zanjani said. "This campaign has been the experience of a lifetime for many us I believe."

  "Yes, sir," Lieutenant Hopkins said. "It's been a privilege to serve under you." Snickers joined with quiet "Hear, Hear"s and mutters of agreement.

  "Sir, I don't think that's just something we all feel," Torson said. "I think my staff's report amply supports the belief that we've had unprecedented success in suppressing the pirates here. It also highlights the dedication and professionalism of all involved. We can all feel proud of ourselves."

  "I do hope Admiral Arain feels the same," Commodore Zanjani said.

  "I'm sure he will, sir," Torson replied. "As will SDFHQ I'm equally certain. I expect this operation will be a template for pirate suppression throughout known space."

  "So why Lieutenant, do I get the feeling you're not going to tell us that, having patted each other on the back, we can now all go home?" Commodore Zanjani said.

  "Ah, because you're an exceedingly perceptive, intelligent and experienced leader of men, sir?" Torson answered. Chuckles and some soft but outright laughter greeted his sally.

  The commodore smiled. "I appreciate flattery as well the next man, but let's cut to the chase."

  "There's a pirate band shaped hole in our data," Torson said. "There are enough disappearances without trace of even registered merchant ships over the last decade that we can be certain there's another pirate band out there. The pattern of disappearances is not random. Moreover although obviously our records of secret long range clan expeditions and outright smugglers are somewhat deficient ..."

  "Somewhat deficient? It's impossible to nail the sneaky bastards down," Lieutenant Hopkins said. More chuckles.

  "In a timely manner, yes, I agree," Torson said. "After the fact, over longer periods, it's possible to track unexpected disappearances from the fleets of the trading clans and known smugglers."

  "We'll take your word on that, Lieutenant Torson," Commodore Zanjani said. The look his Chief of Staff gave Hopkins showed who his words were really directed to.

  "Sir, to summarize we've got a pattern of merchant ship disappearances that's too great to attribute to the occasional piece of bad luck or any other cause but piracy," Torson said. "As already established we can't attribute them to the pirates we've already dealt with."

  "So you think there's another, sixth, band of pirates still out there that's a lot sneaker than the other five were. That correct?" Commodore Zanjani said.

  "Yes, sir."

  "What do you propose we do about it?"

  "It's a difficult problem, sir," Torson replied. "I don't think we can just rest on our laurels and go home, I'm afraid. If we do the remaining pirates will just expand into the vacuum we've created. All we'll have done is gotten rid of the stupid pirates and replaced them with smarter ones. More vicious ones if the rumors can be believed."

  Groans and more mutters, maybe a little more subdued then before, greeted this pronouncement. Torson hoped that was a sign he was winning his audience over to some degree.

  "Okay lieutenant, do you have any proposals on how we can find these new more elusive pirates?" Commodore Zanjani said. "And by the way I notice this is the first you've mentioned those, umm, 'interesting' rumors."

  "That's two questions, sir, both with complicated answers," Torson replied.

  "Try your best to keep it simple. And short."

  "Space is too big for us to hope to throughly search every candidate system for a possible sixth pirate base, especially since we can be pretty sure its somehow hidden or disguised."

  "All too true."

  "We've constructed a prioritized list of systems to search using what amounts to a set of educated guesses," Torson said. "Essentially the location of any possible base amounts to a trade off between being far enough from frequented space to remain undetected and being close enough to efficiently lay ambushes for targets. It narrows the search space, pardon the pun, down quite considerably."

  "Very good. More? Odds of success?"

  "Well, sir, we have recommended search procedures for each system by rough type," Torson replied. "We also have a suggested search pattern for the Task Force. We estimate four to six months to complete it depending upon operational tempo. We believe the odds of finding the pirate base we're sure exists is between 80 and 95% if our plans are followed."

  "I see," Commodore Zanjani said. "Excellent work, Lieutenant Torson."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "Your conclusions were not a complete surprise to me or my staff. Lieutenant Hopkins has been playing the devil's advocate to some extent. I had him and Ops co-operate in formulating a plan that will get the job done much faster than four months. One or two at most."

  "Yes, sir?"

  "One thing this campaign has proven is that pirates cannot stand
up to regular navy ships," Commodore Zanjani said. "We'll take advantage of that fact to split the Task Force into four sub-groups and thereby complete the search roughly four times faster."

  "Sir, this sixth set of pirates are pretty much an unknown quantity," Torson replied. "We don't know what they're capable of. Can't trust the rumors I admit, but they suggest they're viciously dangerous."

  "True, but we already know their main trick is hiding," Commodore Zanjani said. "Don't seem to have the stomach for stand up fights. No, Sven, you've done a fine job. I admire your courage in sticking to your guns given what it'll do to your career if we don't find these missing pirates. Now its time to pass the baton to the Operations staff. Understood?"

  "Yes, sir. Understood," Torson replied. It was all he could do.

  * * *

  Jeannie was on the Chang's Venture's bridge for jump emergence.

  Engineering and navigation confirmed a successful jump almost immediately. It was only a few minutes more before the sensor watch reported. "Captain, confirmed our course is nominal and clear. There are no other ships visible in system."

  They were three systems and over a week out from Pedlar's Haven. Jeannie was feeling a lot less uneasy.

  "Captain Lee, set course for the south standard navigation point," she ordered.

  "Yes, ma'am," Captain Lee replied. It was a deviation from their planned course but unlike some of the bridge crew she gave no sign of surprise. Her and Jeannie had discussed the possibility earlier. "Helm, set us on course for a zero velocity arrival at the standard south navigation point."

  "Yes, ma'am," the helmsman replied punching several buttons.

  As the stars started to move in the large fixed views dominating the bridge Jeannie had to fight to keep from smiling.

  She'd planned the course of action now afoot carefully.

  She had not done so without seeking expert advice. She'd talked at length with First Officer Okoro. To avoid the appearance of bypassing Captain Lee she'd been at pains to avoid having those long discussions stick out.

  Over the last week she'd a long talk with almost everyone on the ship. Everyone she could find and nail down. She'd had a hot beverage, or in the case of some engineering hands who'd just come off watch and weren't due back on for more than eight hours, a cold brew, with every member of the crew either individually or in a small group. After some initial uneasiness most of them had been flattered by the Owner's attention and had welcomed a patient ear to talk to at length.