"You're welcome, Miss Chang," Torson replied.
It was only a few minutes before the point team rejoined them. They walked out into the hanger to greet an assault shuttle from the Normandy.
Nobody said much more.
* * *
The Normandy's Sick Bay had been ready for an influx of casualties that had never arrived.
Looking around as they walked into it Jeannie saw staff everywhere waiting for patients that would never appear. A good thing. Sometimes things worked out for the better. Nice to know. Like to think that maybe she'd had something to do with it.
For certain if the Pirate Chief had been allowed to have his way the idling staff would have been very busy. Nothing personal, just needed a distraction. It was surreal, now being surrounded by people who obviously cared about others, to think how indifferent the pirates and the Pirate Chief had been to others' suffering. Odd to think how used to it she'd become.
She turned. "They'll have to do surgery," she said to Lieutenant Torson who was walking at her side. "I don't want general anesthetic. Have them use local." She paused. "Please," she pleaded.
The Lieutenant looked to a doctor who had come up to them. "Is that possible," he asked.
The doctor obviously torn between frowning at the question and trying to be sympathetic to Jeannie answered, "As along as Miss Chang can remain calm, it might be a little tricky but I believe we'll be able to accommodate her request," she said to Lieutenant Torson. Turning to Jeannie with a concerned face she said, "Miss Chang, please allow me to apologize on the behalf of the medical profession for what was done to you. It was an atrocity. I assure you monsters like that man who did this to you are very rare. You have nothing to fear here."
"Not your fault, Doctor," Jeannie answered, "but apology accepted."
"Thank you," the woman replied obviously gratified that Jeannie was not hostile to all doctors. "Please, come this way and we'll see to it right away."
Less than hour and Jeannie stood up stiffly her back and neck still numb, but free of the fear of being remotely terminated or controlled.
The Normandy's doctors did not show much in the way of bedside manner, but they worked quickly and efficiently. After the Pirate Chief's Doctor's philosophizing Jeannie found the no-nonsense taciturn approach of the SDF doctors to be a welcome change.
The woman who seemed to be in charge, Torson had called her Dr. Mendez, explained what they'd done to Jeannie. "We've removed all the electronics," she was saying. "The device is functionally disabled. No worry there. We left some of the direct connections to your nervous system in place because you're going to want to have the best specialist you can find with the best possible facilities to remove those. You'll have to go under general anesthetic too and be completely immobilized. It's not really technically difficult but the slightest mistake and you could be impaired for life. Small risk but best to minimize it as much as possible. Right now you should get some rest and give the surgery a chance to heal."
"I'll report it to the Commodore," Lieutenant Torson said. He looked at Jeannie.
"Thank you, Dr. Mendez," Jeannie said. "Before we go has either of you any news regards the other hostages?"
"We haven't seen any of them here yet," Dr. Mendez replied. "That's a good sign." She questioned Lieutenant Torson with a glance. It occurred to Jeannie that formally Mendez likely outranked him.
"Yes, ma'am. I'll check," Lieutenant Torson replied to the unsaid question. He muttered something into the mic attached to his combat helmet once more. Seemed the SDF trained its soldiers in some sort of quick quiet patter for situations like this one.
He looked up at Jeannie. "They're still processing the hostages. They're safe the explosives and other threats have all been disabled. A large portion of the Marines are cross-trained as paramedics. They're saying the hostages are in surprisingly good shape. Healthy, low disease, not physically abused, and well nourished. Your pirate friends might have been murderous scum but they don't seem to have been abusive murderous scum. Seem right?"
"Not my friends," Jeannie said icily. "Definitely murderous but practical allowing a total lack of morality. They took good care of their livestock. They were the worst of slavers."
"Okay," Lieutenant Torson replied obviously taken aback by Jeannie's vehemence. "They have found some of your crew. Mostly in good shape physically, but at least one of the women is mentally traumatized. Perhaps even suffered brain damage. The marines aren't really qualified to tell even if they did have the time. We'll have to get them back to civilization and proper specialists for a proper diagnosis."
"I'll tell you about the pirate's ideas of a proper welcome and start to indoctrination later," Jeannie said. "It wasn't pretty, even leaving the murders aside. There are going to be psychological casualties. You saw what they did to me, and they were taking it easy on me because of the ransom they were hoping for."
"Unfortunate," Lieutenant Torson responded. "We'll do what we can for them. You'll be happy to hear that we captured the base's main data banks intact. Found a lot of other intelligence, data, DNA, personal possessions, they left in a hurry without cleaning up. Casablanca spent last several days lurking nearby sucking solid data on all the ships, and a lot of comms traffic too, there isn't a port or place in human space where those pirate ships can go to be safe. We're going to get most of the individuals too."
"The merchants, the Doctor?" Jeannie asked.
"There are enough records that we'll get some of the merchants," Lieutenant Torson answered. "But not all, and legally it'll be hard to determine let alone prove how complicit individuals were. Sorry, but some are going to get away. Which doctor?"
Jeannie nodded. The pirates had created a moral morass that was for sure. Wider society might be best to burn out the entire infection of anyone who had ever dealt with them, but that proscription would include Jeannie herself, and most of her remaining crew too. Unfair, and personally inconvenient as well. "I see," she said. "The doctor who chipped me. Former high up Federation bureaucrat."
Torson took her arm lightly. "You're tired and distraught," he said. "We should get to your assigned quarters for some of that rest the our doctor here prescribed."
Jeannie looked at him hard. "Lieutenant Torson," she said. "I'll go quietly, but you must not underestimate the danger this man represents. He's brilliant and totally without scruples. Please, promise me you'll pass my concerns on to your superiors."
"I promise."
"Thank you," Jeannie said. It would have to do. She let the Lieutenant lead her off.
* * *
The corridors of the assault transport Normandy were wider than those in most of the spaceships Jeannie had seen. So although busy the traffic in them flowed easily. She was even able to walk abreast with Lieutenant Torson.
He kept a light hand on her elbow. Under other circumstances she might have been annoyed by this. As tired and battered as she was, and after weeks of the harsh cultural Darwinism of the pirates she rather appreciated it.
"So what are you going to do?" Lieutenant Torson asked.
"Do?" Jeannie responded.
"Do you think you can go back the way your life was now?" Lieutenant Torson elaborated. "I hope it's not too early to ask. You don't seem like the beat around the bush sort though."
Jeannie looked at him. He was looking quite intently serious. This was no idle expression of curiosity. Also he was old for a lieutenant.
"Just who are you, Lieutenant Torson?" she said. "And how is it that you and a single sergeant were the ones to find me?"
"I'm a poor boy from the habitats promoted from the ranks," he said.
Jeannie nodded. It was a rare achievement. The man was tougher and smarter than average. He'd also be lacking the normal network of contacts most officer's would have first inherited from their families and then added to at the Academy. Still he'd have a patron. "So what's your job here?" she said. "Who do you work for?"
"I'm the head of the sector anti-piracy intell
igence group. I report to Admiral Arain, but we're assisting Commodore Zanjani who commands Task Force 39 from the Casablanca."
A piercing gleam of light speared through the gloom of her stunned fatigue. Arain was a mover and a shaker. One of the few senior SDF officers to both realize the SDF's strategic situation was not sustainable and determined to do something about it.
"So I can blame your boss for my being in this mess?"
"The pirates were a problem for the trader clans even if you weren't seeing it," Lieutenant Torson said. "We fixed a mostly hidden rot for you before it got worse."
"So very kind of you," Jeannie snarked. She immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry. What you say is doubtless true if not the whole truth. Also the decision to jump the gun and launch an expedition to the Beyonders they'd cut us off from was wholly mine. I've got to own that."
Torson nodded in his turn. He seemed pleased in his serious way. It was almost like she'd passed some important test in his mind. The eternal deities that ruled the universe knew that she'd been tested enough in her time and that she knew the signs.
They were in a lesser traveled part of the ship now. Looked like an accommodations deck. Torson stopped her with a touch to the elbow by one hatch. It had a broad light blue strip and a large black number in a white circle on it. "This is your cabin here," he said. "If you don't mind I'd like to come in. I've something I'd like to discuss with you. It's important and time sensitive."
As much as she wanted to rest. As tired as she was of men in her private places, Jeannie realized it was best to agree. Lieutenant Torson did not seem like the overly sensitive type, but he did seem aware of what he was asking of her. He was asking just the same. "Sure," she said. "A few minutes conversation can't hurt."
"Thank you," he said. "It's already keyed to your biometrics just wave your hand over the door pad."
She did so letting them into a small but comfortable looking cabin. "You can have the chair. I'll just sit on the bunk," she said.
"It's going to be awkward for you to try and go back to your former role in your clan after this," Lieutenant Torson said as soon as he'd finished seating himself. "Also I don't mean to presume, but I suspect you wouldn't mind a chance to get away and re-evaluate your priorities after this ordeal. You don't seem the sort for quiet vacations though." He smiled at this last.
He had said her aborted escape attempts had made an impression in the fleet. Perhaps they hadn't been the complete loss she'd feared. She realized what he said was true too. Her first major expedition had been a disaster that had resulted in the loss of crew and clansmen, even if some had turned out to be traitors. It'd be an uphill battle to live that down. She herself was tired of the constraints of her role as a de facto trader clan princess.
"Let's grant that," she said. "What do you propose?"
"Apply to the Academy," he said. "You could likely get a waiver for the term of service, but you should do that too."
"You think I should join the SDF. Why?"
"In the immediate short term it will get you out of an awkward emotionally charged situation and give time for feelings to cool," Lieutenant Torson replied. "Also it will cast a better light on the whole incident. The SDF would be seen to be sufficiently impressed by your actions to want to recruit you. A solid endorsement."
"Okay, again true as far as it goes," Jeannie said. "A little cowardly maybe. I don't like to make decisions for purely negative reasons."
Torson snorted. "Nobody who hears of what happened here is going to think you're a coward," he said. "There are strong positive long term reasons for doing it. Less immediate and less obvious, but more important. From the Chang clan's point of view it would establish a strong alliance with the SDF. You know those personal relationships are only going to become more important in the future."
"What about me?" Jeannie asked. "Maybe I'm tired of being a piece in the game and a soldier. Maybe I want to go to a university near a tropical beach and take basket weaving. Study the ocean waves and sunsets. Tell you, my father, Admiral Arain and any remaining pirates to go to hell and leave me alone."
"Seriously?" Torson said. "Forgive my presumption on a short acquaintance but that's nonsense and you know it. You wouldn't last a week doing nothing on a beach. It'd drive you crazy. Nothing in your history suggests someone who doesn't tackle the toughest challenge present with gusto. Face it, woman, you're a player. You're not a quitter."
Jeannie made an effort to stare the Lieutenant down. Had worked with most people before. Either the Lieutenant was tougher than most or she was just too tired. "Okay," she said. "Let's grant that. Just the same what's in it for Jeannie the person, the girl just starting adult life, who wouldn't mind being in control of her own life and happy?"
"Again forgive my presumption," Lieutenant Torson replied. "But I suspect you've been special and in a bubble your whole life, but because you're the heir first and Jeannie second, never had real friends of just your own."
"Killed the closest thing to a friend of my own, my bodyguard," Jeannie said bleakly. "That doctor you haven't found managed to condition her."
"That's tough. I know it has to hurt. I'm sorry."
"It is what it is," Jeannie said. "I'm not saying you're wrong. It's rather like asking a fish how the water is."
"As just another cadet at the Academy," Torson said. "You'll escape that bubble. No bed of roses, but different and better problems. You'll have to the opportunity to make friends on your own merits, and build an independent network outside of the Chang clan. Being an Academy graduate will give you independent street cred through out human settled space."
"You make a good pitch, Lieutenant," Jeannie said. "Why are you making it now?"
"Because although recommendations from myself, and Admiral Arain, I think I can convince him, will give you a definite leg up candidates for the Academy not from the Core worlds are rare and very carefully scrutinized."
"You think how I act in the debriefings will make a difference."
"I'm sure the acceptance board will review the records."
"So you've got some advice, spit."
"You're female and physically you're going to remind the officers on the board of an Earth woman from an Asian background," Torson said. "They're going to wonder if you're aggressive enough to make a good officer."
Jeannie had never been accused of lacking aggression before. She couldn't help an amused smile.
"It's unfair but you can't seem like a cocky aggressively arrogant know it all either," Torson continued. "You have to manage to project aggressive self-confidence while at the same time not being a prima donna."
"Something of a tight rope you want me to walk here," she said. It perked her up, she did love a challenge.
"You must be respectful," Torson said. "No amusement, snark, or sarcasm what so ever, however, tempting or well deserved it may be. You must let your record stand for itself without an appearance that it may have gone to your head.
"Okay, I can be self effacing," Jeannie said. "We have our share of backward cultures on the Fringe."
"Don't even hint at thinking that way around any other SDF member, enlisted or commissioned," Lieutenant Torson said. "They don't think the Core worlds and the SDF are the pinnacle of human achievement they just assume it. You don't want to upset them."
"And associating with these people will broaden my perspective?"
"Yes."
"Anything more?"
"Yes," Torson answered. "You are a little older than the average candidate, much better educated, and far more experienced. The typical cadet will be away from home for the first time, have had a mediocre education, and never have had any real responsibility."
"Sound like advantages not problems."
"They're only advantages if they're not obvious ones," Torson replied. "Agreeability and the ability to work well with others are highly valued attributes for candidates. That means fitting in with the average upper class Earth kid who's a couple of years younger than you
."
"They'll have to realize it's an act," Jeannie said.
"People will believe what they want to, if you don't smear their noses in an alternate reality that accords better with the facts. They'll conveniently forget the facts if you let them."
"Okay," Jeannie said. "I'll take your advice under consideration, Lieutenant. I am tired. I think you should leave now."
"Yes, ma'am," Lieutenant Torson said rising.
"I mean, thank you, Lieutenant, sir," Jeannie said standing. "I appreciate your advice."
"Better."
"I do mean it. Thank you for everything."
* * *
Three days later and Jeannie had slept for most of it. She'd finally woke still tired and sore but unwilling to remain abed any longer. She'd been hungry too.
It had been long enough she'd heard for the Casablanca and the best part of Task Force 39 to pursue the pirate's fighting fleet into the next system. The pirates had scattered there. Task Force 39's main force, including the Casablanca had followed just one group and catching them had destroyed two of the pirate fleet.
That done the Casablanca and most of the rest of Task Force 39 had returned to SC10206 where the pirate base lay to take care of its final disposal and that of the people that had been found there.
The SDF leadership had patrol craft shadowing the surviving pirate ships so they'd likely have a good idea where to hunt them down later. In any event with solid identifications on all of them there were very few places they could hope to dock to resupply. Few to none where they could get maintenance and repairs done. Without a base and without the Pirate Chief's leadership or access to the network of informants he'd kept close control of their days were strictly numbered.
In the meantime disposing of the people found in the pirate base included Jeannie's debriefing. As a result she found herself in a large conference room on the Casablanca waiting for her chance to speak to the SDF's Task Force's leadership.
Lieutenant Torson was there too along with a variety of other junior officers and senior ratings. All intelligence if Jeannie guessed right.
Pirate Stars Page 24
