That made him drop the plasma gun. She took it and with three quick shots finished them off.
It'd taken too long. It hadn't gone as she planned despite unforced mistakes on the part of the pirates. If the third pirate had used the time she'd given him to lower his visor or had had it down in the first place she'd been hard put to take him. If the second pirate had held onto his weapon she'd been hard put too. She'd been lucky.
No time to dwell on it. If the this group had been herding her there must be other pirates they'd been herding her to. She grabbed all the spare weaponry she could carry. She went hunting pirates.
It didn't take long to find some. Again they were criminally sloppy. They hadn't reacted to the sounds of her first fight for some reason.
Peering around another corner Jeannie watched a team open a cabin door and the two lead members enter to search it. The third pirate in this new team remained in the corridor to act as a guard it seemed.
He didn't take his role too serious. He stood in the cabin's doorway watching his mates toss the place.
Jeannie scurried up to him in a quick quiet running crouch. When he started to notice her she blew his head off with her newly acquired plasma gun.
She swung around the edge of the cabin door and instantly acquired one of the other two men. Blew his head off before he knew what was happening. The last man managed to get his dart gun part way up before she double tapped him.
So long years of training had proved to be more than just a way of letting off steam and staying in shape.
"Hey, drop it," came a shout from behind her.
She whirled to see a pirate emerging from a cabin just down and on the other side of the corridor. There'd been two teams on the search.
She flung herself back narrowly avoiding a burst of darts. Not completely. One tore along the side of a cheek. She ignored the sharp sting, but couldn't help thinking she was glad her family could afford to have any scars fixed. Not an appropriate thought.
Despite her slow reaction she managed catch the new pirate with in one shoulder with a blast from her plasma gun.
Dropping to the deck she avoided more darts and some plasma bolts from the other pirates behind him.
"You idiot we're supposed to take her alive," she heard one yell at the pirate with the plasma gun.
"Won't be collecting any bonuses if she toasts us," that pirate retorted. She took the opportunity afforded to send more plasma bolts of her own their way.
They failed to find a target. The pirates had had the sense to find cover before starting their debate.
"You'll wish you were dead if you report to the Captain you killed her," one pirate managed while sending a hail of darts Jeannie's way. They all missed. Jeannie had backed up into the doorway of the cabin behind her.
Three small objects sailed over her into that cabin before she could close the door. One went off with a shattering boom and blinding light.
Stunned and unable to hear she only realized the other two grenades had held gas when she smelt it.
Too late then to secure the door and escape through the ventilation trunking. She'd been careless and slow. Darkness claimed her.
5: A Welcoming Ceremony
Peace: to accept what must be,
To know what endures
Jeannie woke with a whimper.
Her headache was that bad. Even her admittedly limited experiments with alcohol had not produced results so excruciating.
She could tell she wasn't clean through the pain. She was lying on her back. Both hands and her right leg seemed to be in restraints of some sort.
She opened her eyes. Her eyelids were sandpaper. The light hurt. She was in one of the passenger cabins. She had not one but two guards. She was indeed being held to a lower bunk with handcuffs.
Flattering really.
"What happened?"
"You're not to talk to us. We're not to talk to you except to tell you this. If you persist in talking we will gag you," one of the pirates said. The pirate was large and looked tough. She was definitely female for all that. Despite the large wide white scar down one side of her face she was not unattractive.
Her male companion played with a gag by the way of emphasis. He smiled at Jeannie. It wasn't a friendly expression.
Jeannie didn't waste time asking for a drink, or about bathroom or meal breaks.
She had the distinct feeling that denying her requests to be treated with basic decency would only give her guards pleasure. Worse they'd likely enjoy gagging her for the audacity of asking.
She didn't see what she could do. She was helpless. If her head hadn't hurt so she'd have just gone back to sleep.
Physically tied down. Didn't see how she was going to think her way out this. Light years away from any help her father or the rest of the clan might provide.
Might as well assess the situation, it was all she could do. Perhaps something would come to her.
Could be worse she could be dead. Apparently they didn't want her dead. Seemed clear from what that pirate had yelled at his team mate and from the care they'd taken not to kill her even after learning how dangerous she could be.
So maybe there were fates worse than death but she'd take being alive as a positive for the time being.
They weren't torturing her yet. They appeared to be at pains not to damage her long term. Their efforts, the two guards, that suggested they considered her valuable. As a hostage for ransom maybe? She was clan heir.
Maybe they didn't know about the clan's policy to never pay ransoms. Maybe they didn't think it'd apply to a hard to quickly replace heir.
If so they didn't know her father. He loved her and he paid heed to his feelings. He did not do things he believed to be wrong or irrational.
She could use the fact that they considered her a valuable hostage. She could not depend on that ransom being paid. She had to somehow, whatever the risks, escape before the pirates realized it.
There was one action point established. Hard to see how she could act on it right now, but it was a clear goal.
What else did she know?
They'd been betrayed. She'd been betrayed. That the pirates had been waiting for them, that the ship hadn't put up a better fight, that her cabin door had been mysteriously locked any one of those could be explained away. Taken altogether they meant betrayal.
She needed allies but she didn't know who she could trust. Sheena maybe if she lived but that didn't seem likely.
That the pirates were being careful to not talk in front of her, and to not let her talk either was awkward.
It was also promising. Suggested there were facts that she could learn that would be to her advantage. Most likely loyal crew members had been taken prisoner and the pirates weren't sure of being able to control them if they acted in concert.
Likely there were divisions or a or lack of trust among the pirates themselves. Perhaps they didn't want her talking to her guards because they were afraid she could successfully bribe them to help her.
There were glimmers of light in this dark situation.
She would bide her time. Keep her ears open and eyes peeled. Never stop assessing her situation. An opening would come and she'd charge right through it.
These pirates would rue the day they first heard of Jeannie Chang.
* * *
The crew was assembled. The entire remaining crew Jeannie suspected. There were bound to have been at least a few casualties in the fight to take the Chang's Venture.
They were on their knees, in long lines with both their hands and feet bound. A few heads were held high. Captain Lee and First Officer Okoro's in the first line composed of the ship's officers.
Jeannie could see Sheena shackled but unbowed at one end of the second line. That was one positive gleam of hope in a dark picture.
Those individuals were exceptions. The majority of the crew members were staring down at the unadorned deckplates they were being force to kneel on.
The large space they were
in was the "rec" room of the passenger section. It was multi-functional. It could be used for Bingo, weddings, other ceremonies, dances, dinners, gymnastics, sparring, or amateur theater.
Pirate theater too as it was evident. There was both carpet and padding that could have been placed over the deck. The pirates had chosen not to.
It was clear that the pirates were imposing the discomfort and humiliation deliberately. It was clear their efforts were succeeding.
The pirates were present in numbers more than equal to the crew's. They wandered about randomly prodding their victims. They were armed with neither the dart guns nor the plasma guns they'd assaulted the ship with. They were carrying assault rifles with fixed bayonets.
Silvery bayonets that gleamed, their sharp edges glinting. Bayonets intended to intimidate, not deal stealthy murder in the dark.
Jeannie wasn't sure how much time had passed since the ship had been attacked.
Her guards had noticed her looking at the time displayed on the computer screen in her makeshift cell. They'd turned it off.
At one point a half dozen additional pirates had appeared and fed her an emergency ration meal at gun and bayonet point. After that they'd manhandled her into the toilet and bath room facilities and made her use them. They had not left her alone.
After being returned and reshackled to her bunk, she'd napped for a time.
She wasn't sure how long it been before they'd woken her up to haul her to this meeting with the rest of the crew. She estimated most of a day.
It was long enough for the pirates to have secured the ship and hunted down all the crew. Long enough for the pirates to take inventory, do preliminary interrogations, then clean up and rest a while.
Now it was time to divvy up the remaining part of the spoils, the crew itself.
They'd be seeking to break the spirit of the crew in the process. The pirates would want the crew to believe there was no hope, that they'd all been caught and were helpless.
Jeannie was determined to resist and remain defiant.
She'd been forced to kneel alone except for her pirate guards, in front of, and facing her crew. She kept her head up and expression as calm and confident as she could manage.
A flamboyantly dressed and smiling pirate swaggered over to her and using the barrel of the pistol he carried lifted her chin to gaze into her face.
"Bodkins, I do believe we should assist our captive in holding her head up," the Pirate Chief said grinning even wider.
A large pirate stepped up behind Jeannie and grabbing her hair jerked her head painfully back. "With pleasure," he said with a nasty smile of his own. It was a clever trick to modify Jeannie's posture of defiance into one of subjugation.
"Careful we don't want to do any permanent damage to our hostage," the Pirate Chief said. "She may prove valuable." He stepped to Jeannie's right and planted himself facing the room, feet wide and his hands on his hips, he surveyed it.
"Welcome all to our little gathering," he announced. "Freebooters and former crew members of this ship both."
He was greeted by cheers, whistles, and even, incongruously applause, from his pirates.
"All the Freebooters have enjoyed ceremonies like this before." That was met by wild laughter from the pirates present. "I will explain it for the benefit of the non-Freebooters here." More laughter.
"We are gathered here today." The Pirate Chief paused for the chuckles he duly received from his thugs.
"We are gathered here today for a ceremony of transition. All societies have traditions that recognize important inflection points in life. Our free society of Freebooters is no different in this regard." The Pirate Chief paused expectantly.
"So be it," intoned his pirates. Jeannie wondered if it was some sort of weird pirate religious ceremony.
"Science has confirmed the value of such traditions," the Pirate Chief said waving a hand at a skinny man clothed in a dark shipsuit to his side. The man giggled. That and the feverish light in the man's intense eyes led Jeannie to think he might be insane. Insane even by the standards of their present company.
"The marking of important changes in life by ceremony helps individuals absorb those changes and to accept them."
"So it is," the pirates intoned again.
"Today all you former members of the crew of this ship are leaving your old lives behind."
"So be it."
"Some of you will be starting new lives." The pirates laughed.
"For us Freebooters this ceremony is like Christmas. Freebooters like to make their own version of Christmas where we give ourselves gifts and make merry." Again, predictably by now, more laughter.
"Unfortunately for you who are new among us that merriment will largely be at your expense," the Pirate Chief said. "Tough. Get used to it. In Freebooter society you start at the bottom and work your way up."
"Hear, hear," his pirate followers concurred.
"A very few of you will be held hostage for ransom," the Pirate Chief said pointing at Jeannie. "You had better hope your families meet our conditions for otherwise we'll be making a very unpleasant example of you." The pirates snickered gleefully. Jeannie had not realized it was possible for people to take such delight in the prospect of cruelty.
"The only way the rest of you will be leaving our company is by dying," the Pirate Chief said smiling in manner that would have seemed benevolent in other circumstances. "I cannot deny that may come to be a pleasant prospect for some of you." A few quiet chuckles greeted this. Jeannie imagined the pirate chief had gone on about as long as he could and was starting to lose his audience.
"Today you will become freebooters, captives, slaves, or mulch," the Pirate Chief said.
"So be it," the pirates intoned. Another part of their pirate litany Jeannie guessed.
"Some lucky few of you former crew will be offered the choice of joining us as a brother or sister freebooter. We've already determined the fate of the rest of you. Those we believe to have valuable skills we will make captive, those who might be useful we will make slaves, the rest of you are mulch."
"So it is," the pirates intoned once more.
"We will address the disposal of each of you individually starting with the most senior among you and working down," the Pirate Chief finished.
"So be it," the pirates responded. "Let the winnowing begin!" they added loudly.
The Pirate Chief and a small band of lieutenants marched forward to a spot in front of Captain Lee. Bodkins kept Jeannie watching from where she was.
"Patricia Lee," the Pirate Chief said with a thin smile. "You do have some valuable skills don't you? Would you join us if we asked?"
"No," Captain Lee replied in a grimly determined tone while meeting the Pirate Chief's eyes.
"Just as well we didn't ask you then," the Pirate Chief said, "isn't it?" He moved on to a point in front of First Officer Okoro leaving Captain Lee with a puzzled look on her face.
"Dahlia Okoro, you have valuable skills," the Pirate Chief said to the First Officer. "Indeed, you may be one of the finest navigators alive. Therefore we're offering you a place in our society of freebooters. Do you accept?"
"No," Okoro replied with a slight tremor in her voice.
"Very well. We will deal with you later," the Pirate Chief said moving onto the purser.
"Sim Seif, you too have valuable skills, but not so valuable as to merit an offer of membership in our society. We will keep you as a captive. You will use your skills to our benefit under supervision. If you fail to perform we will punish you. If necessary we will enslave you or mulch you." That said the Pirate Chief took another couple of steps and placed himself directly in front of Chief Engineer McKittrick.
Clasping the engineer's shoulder and looking directly into his eyes the Pirate Chief spoke, "Calem McKittrick you have valuable engineering skills we sorely need. We're offering membership in our society of freebooters. Do you accept?"
"I do," McKittrick answered in a strained voice.
"E
xcellent. Mates unbind our new colleague," the Pirate Chief said releasing the handcuffs that had held the engineer's hands. The pirate behind him bent and undid his legs. Together the chief and the pirate that had been behind him helped the engineer to his feet.
Jeannie thought the man's legs must have gone numb with kneeling. He was wobbly and uncertain.
"The penalty for betraying one's follow Freebooters is death," the Pirate Chief said. "Do you understand?"
"I understand," McKittrick answered.
"Good. There are some small tests you must now past," the Pirate Chief said whacking him on the back in a friendly manner. That was odd. Also even allowing for the stress he was under McKittrick was acting in a strange manner.
The Pirate Chief and his party guided McKittrick back to a point in front of Captain Lee. Once there the Pirate Chief handed him a pistol. Wrapping his arm around McKittrick's shoulders in a friendly manner the Pirate Chief whispered something in his ear. McKittrick listened carefully nodding occasionally.
Standing straight and stepping away from McKittrick the Pirate Chief looked around and loudly said, "Patricia Lee as you cannot be trusted, and it is necessary to be clear you no longer exercise any authority over your former crew, you are hereby condemned to serve as mulch." He pointed his pistol at the Captain's head.
Jeannie was struck by the look of bewildered surprise on the Captain's face the instant before she was shot. It was a frangible round and did not exit and ricochet, but brains and blood went everywhere.
The next row of prisoners were splattered, Sheena among them. Sheena retained a stern composure but others either vomited or started to weep. The pirates cuffed the vocal to silence. They informed the sick they'd be cleaning up any mess they made.
"You see how it's done?" the Pirate Chief said turning to the engineer and slapping him on the back yet again.
"Dhalia Okoro as you will not join us you must serve as mulch," the Pirate Chief said to her. "McKittrick, do the honors."
The engineer's hand shook as he pointed his pistol at the stunned First Officer and he hesitated, but after a second he pulled the trigger and splattered his former crew mates with yet more gore.
Pirate Stars Page 7
