Duty and Obligation

by Sean Benjamin

  Rafe said, “He wouldn’t be bad. He was good in the Q-ship battle a while back.” He paused and then nodded to himself as he made a decision. “You know, let’s not turn this into recreating the universe. Give Tristan to Nate Corbett, and he will have to build a crew from the ground up with all new people. We will take newcomers from all recommended sources and build a crew from there. I want to keep the other three freighter crews intact because, if we take any of the other slavers, we will transfer the entire crew over, and they will have a big enough challenge getting the new ship up and running and getting a missile system installed without having to break in a bunch of new crewmembers. We can’t have our entire freighter force down at the same time while they figure out their ships, train new crewmembers, and get their missile systems up and running. I agree; it puts Corbett and his new crew at a disadvantage trying to learn on the run with none of them having Flot 1 experience but, better one ship being screwed up than four. Corbett can work with Shane and Lew Terrant to rename Tristan.”

  Tactical said, “As it happens, Dragon is going to Last Chance with her cargo. I’ll task her to pick up Nathan Corbett for the trip back here.” Corbett’s current ship, Celestria, worked the Perdition System on the edge of the Badlands. Last Chance was a major settlement and port on the planet Absolution there.

  “Sounds good,” said Raferty. “Time will be short on getting any of those five ships. That’s the priority right now. It would be nice to get three new freighters and replace all our ships. Bigger ships with all of them having the same maintenance requirements would make life easier for everyone, but we will take what we can get. Also, if we get more ships and document the hidden compartment, it will go far in selling the idea this is a systematic plan by the AC to run slaves. I don’t want to start a war over these ships, but we need to locate them before we can come up with a plan to seize them. Have all ships looking.”

  Tactical spoke up. “Using your name on the tasking order, I’ve already moved all of our ships to the nearest major trading ports from their current positions and told them to board whatever AC ships they come across assuming the situation allows it. Maybe we will get a ship that is not on Yardley’s list. There are probably a couple dozen AC ships of that class in the quadrant, and we should be able to run down a few of them. Shane has overall command until we get there.”

  Baby Doll added, “A good place to look might be the Goth convoys. There are two Goth squadrons now doing them—Green Squadron under Muller and Gold under Landau. The Gold convoys are running right by Agra 2. Both admirals are running half their squadrons with the convoys. It’s an invitation to fight with the prize being the convoy. The Zekes have been shadowing them but not forcing the issue.” She paused now and looked at Hawkins to see if he had a comment.

  Hawkins commented, “Taking the AC ships is the priority, so we will let the convoys go for now. I think we could take them in a fight, but why bother. I don’t view the convoys as a challenge to us but as an opportunity to hit other targets. We need to look at other potential targets in those two patrol areas. If they got half their squadrons tied up on convoy duty, and we know their constant location from the Zekes shadowing the convoy, then that leaves only the other half of the squadron to cover their AOR. They can’t be everywhere, so there has got to be some easy pickings out there. Let’s find them. If we start hitting other targets, the Goths will abandon the convoy system or reduce the escorts.

  “If the AC slavers are in the convoys, then the AC command people are dumber than I think they are. That’s as good as admitting those particular ships are slavers. Once the convoy breaks up, each of those ships would be vulnerable. If that happens, we need to pounce.”

  Baby Doll continued. “One last topic. Between O’Hare’s list of offending guards and input from other sources, we think we have a good idea of who the guilty parties are in the Longwall jail. We have put out blood contracts and two have already been cashed in. Also, our sources on the planet have reported a Goth navy investigative team have shown up to conduct an inquiry into our attack. The lead officer is our old friend, the former CO of Abendhimmel, Commander Fritz Steiner. At first glance, we thought this was going to be a cover-up but not so fast. Apparently, Steiner started putting his foot up some asses as soon as he hit Bolindale. The local officials are bitching, but Steiner is digging hard for the truth. Sounds like Hochstadt sent him there to get to the bottom of the situation, and she is backing him up. Hopefully, he’ll get the real story about what goes on there.”

  Hawkins was lost in thought for a few moments. “I wish we could help him, but we don’t have any actual proof to send him. O’Hare is not going to give a deposition. I hope Steiner is smart enough to talk to prisoners. He can get the truth from them. Even though they would be regarded as untrustworthy, if enough of them tell the same stories about the same people, that would be hard to ignore.”

  Baby Doll now closed up the brief. “That’s the big stuff. More in the intel section on the computer.” She paused now in thought and then continued. “New intel I just got twenty minutes ago, so it’s not on the computer. Reports out of the Aurora Empire state large ship movements out of the Electra System and Wanderlust. Royal Navy formations on the move. Destination unknown.”

  Hawkins frowned. “How the hell do we know that?” There was no reasonable way they should have that information, and it spoke of the lack of Zeke operational security that they did have it.

  Baby Doll gave a slight shrug and spoke in a resigned tone. She also recognized the Zeke failure at operational security. “Two of our wandering religious groups report the same thing. They spotted the Zekes in space. One of them is Father Tom, and you know he is good for it.”

  Tom Stapleton was a reverend with a roving band of people carrying on Aberdene’s work on a variety of planets in the Aurora Empire. Four people in that group protected him and spied for Flot 1. Father Tom knew they did that and let it happen. He thought Flot 1 did God’s work too. The reports from the four men were always timely and reliable.

  Hawkins shook his head in disbelief. “If we know this, the OrCons sure as hell know.” He paused as he stared at the bulkhead beyond Baby Doll while Skyler Mallory flashed through his thoughts. He talked to drive the image away. “Large formations will always generate comm chatter. They should have moved in small numbers over time in different directions before converging on a single location. God, I hope it is some kind of bluff or smokescreen by the Zekes.” His demeanor showed he really didn’t believe that. Neither did anyone else in the compartment. The Zekes weren’t smart enough to do a bluff, and they were dumb enough not to even think about what it would mean if they were spotted. Rafe briefly wondered what idiot flag officer was in charge of this lash-up. The Zekes never seemed to run out of them.

  Rafe took a breath and looked around the compartment. “Anyone got anything else?” He paused but was met by silence. He continued, “I got one more thing before we break this up. You all know we have a de facto truce with the Goths due to their help at Kiraloch. I don’t know how long it will continue, but I don’t think we should be the ones to break it. That is one of the reasons we are avoiding the convoys. I think the Goths will get back to business as usual soon enough, and we can go back shooting at them soon enough so no hurry there. Until that happens, I think our near future activities should be against corporations. Regardless of who owns them, there are several stretching the limits here—the AC, the Sunrise gang, and the Strasberg Mining Company to name a few. I should have seen this sooner. When we hit them, we get results. With the Strasberg mining circus, the Goths have to go in and clean up the mess and create permanent change. The effects are our fight with Sunrise is spreading to many planets. The AC fight will help back in the Aurora Empire and across the Badlands. The simple fact is a defeat dealt to a corporation has wider implications than taking out some Goth ships. Of course, we will still kill the Goths, and that does have positive results, but forcing corporations to change will be more important
in the long run. I know we will get back to the Goths soon enough, but we need to take advantage of any opportunities against some of our corporate friends. I’m sending those thoughts out to the rest of Flot 1 to get some feedback. You are also welcomed to provide input on this slight shift of focus for the near future.”

  Raferty smiled at everyone. “Thanks for all the hard work while I’ve been screwing around. You all do good things when I get out of your way.”

  The brief ended. The officers started to depart and return to their duties. Rafe stood and moved to his desk chair as soon as everyone had left. He pulled out a beer from his cold unit and opened it. He took one drink and then stared at the bottle with a frown. It wasn’t that great for some reason. He sat in his chair and leaned back with the bottle in his hand. He was tired.

  The hatch to the bridge quietly opened and Tactical entered. She came to the desk and took one of the two chairs in front. She relaxed in her seat and then stared at him with an unreadable expression. He watched her with little interest and then held up his beer bottle in a silent offer. She shook her head.

  Tactical led off. “How is she?”

  “Fine,” he replied. He couldn’t think of anything to add. Tactical would know the pertinent medical details already. The crews of both pirate ships had been kept up to date on all the medical developments concerning O’Hare and him.

  “I didn’t mean just medically but everything else too. I thought you two might take some time before coming back,” she ventured. “We could have spared a couple days. The war isn’t going anywhere.”

  “If we had taken time away, we probably would never have come back.”

  “It was that close?” she asked.

  He looked at his sister and shook his head in disgust. “It was as close as it could be without anything actually happening. We came close to dying, close to sex, close to leaving together, close to being caught, close to about everything—and in the end, we both went back to our ships like not a damn thing had happened.” He stopped as he stared at his desktop and then talked in a slightly desolate voice. “I really don’t know why, but I am so disappointed in myself right now.”

  He didn’t want to think about it so changed subject. “You did a great job at the prison. Complete success and no friendly losses. Can’t beat that for results.”

  She half smiled and shook her head. “I overestimated our abilities. We got really lucky in that the guards were more incompetent at this than we were. Luck is not a recipe for continued success. We have to quit ground assaults or start training for them, and I don’t see a way to get death squads together on a regular basis to do the training. We go up against ground troops or security forces who know what they are doing, we get chewed up in no time flat. I think that type of ground assault is out for future ops.”

  Rafe nodded. “That’s fine, but it doesn’t detract from the prison attack and your good job in planning and leading it.”

  Tactical nodded at the compliment. She watched her brother in silence. As the quiet lengthened she said softly, “Tell me.”

  He took a breath. “A couple of things.” Another breath, and then he talked. “I had never realized the depth of Anastasia’s emotion over the prison. In retrospect, I should have. Her refusal to talk about it gave me an out, and I took it. She wanted to ignore it all, so that made it easy for me to do the same. I let her down. I should have made payback on that damn prison the top priority when we became good enough to pull the hit off. I didn’t do that. The attack should have been done years ago.”

  Tactical listened intently. Hawkins paused for a moment as he thought about a second topic and then continued. “The time I spent with her brought back all the feelings from before. I have always known I still loved her, but I hadn’t realized how much or how… real it still is. Watching her get wounded and then the hard recovery process drove home just how important she still is to me. If she had died…” He let his voice fade to nothing and then he added. “We got to say a lot of things to each other over the last couple of days. We were close to just chucking it all and running away. I know I could have left with her, but we both pulled back. We knew we would have to leave the flotilla because we can’t be together as a couple and keep things the way they are within the flotilla right now. If we were together again, I wouldn’t let her get ten meters away from me ever.”

  He lapsed into silence and several seconds passed. Tactical addressed the prison comment first. “If you had waited until we were good enough to attack the prison, you would still be waiting. The fact is we aren’t good enough even now. We got lucky, damn lucky. We had surprise, numbers, good intel, and superior firepower on our side, and it was still a goat screw. If we had done the attack last year or the year before that or whenever, I’m not sure we would have pulled it off without massive casualties. I know getting Anastasia her revenge is desirable, but that is not as important as what we have done the last few years. I can’t think of one mission we should have put off in order to do that attack, especially in the last year. We got to keep our focus on the big picture stuff.”

  She paused for a moment, and then she addressed his second item. “You have always loved her. Even when you were with Emily and now Skyler Mallory, you still love her. I think you two love each other as naturally as breathing. You will always love Anastasia, and she will always love you. That was a done deal when you both were still kids. Even Mother saw that. She always thought you two would leave together and make your own way.”

  Rafe looked at his sister in surprise. “I didn’t know that.”

  Tactical nodded. “She told me. She knew her work was not for you, and that you would leave eventually. She was glad Anastasia would be with you. She thought that would increase your chances of finding success.”

  Rafe smiled a slight smile. “That is the way it worked out, even if that is not quite how she envisioned it.” He asked one last question. “Is it possible to truly love two good women at the same time?”

  Tactical smiled a rare smile. “The heart is not a logical instrument, so I believe it is possible. Though I suspect it is tough to live with if it happens that way.” She leaned forward in her seat. “You may want to keep Skyler Mallory out of the loop on that though.”

  Hawkins smiled at her. “Probably a good idea.” He paused and changed subjects. “Enough about me and my forlorn love life. I want to update you on Pierre Bergeron.” He told her of his conversation with the doctor concerning her face.

  Tactical shook her head. “Pierre worries too much. He did a great job given the conditions, and I have always been grateful for his help.”

  “I told him that, and I think he knows it intellectually, but he still gets emotional about it.” He smiled at Tactical. “When you decide to change your look, you have to go to him. If you go anywhere else, he would be very offended and hurt.”

  Tactical said, “I have no problem with that. He is one of the best. It’s a date.”

  Raferty moved on. “Now that we have that solved, one last topic. How was it here with Mason in charge?”

  Tactical nodded in satisfaction. “He was good. He took advice and made decisions. Most of them were the right decisions. We returned all the teams to their ships and did a couple of freighter stops looking for slaves. Nothing came of them. It’s been a quiet couple of days.”

  Hawkins nodded at the update and spoke quietly. “How is it with you and him?”

  Tactical smiled at him. “Is your recent adventure with Anastasia making you think of my relationship with my old and now reacquired lover?”

  Hawkins nodded and shrugged. “I guess so. Not being nosy. Just want you to be happy.”

  Tactical nodded in response. “We are making progress. He is still getting over the idea that he is the center of my universe. I’m still not sure I can trust him. He hasn’t done anything wrong during this go around, so I guess it is just leftover emotions from the first time.” She looked at Raferty. “It will work or it won’t. I’ll do my best to make i
t work, and I think he will too. Right now, I am happy with it.” She smiled at Rafe now. “Don’t worry about me, big brother.”

  Hawkins smiled back. “I always worry about you. You’re my sister, and I love you.”

  Tactical stood up, came around the desk, and kissed her brother on his forehead. Then she whispered in his ear, “Running out in the open like that? You’re still a stupid bastard for doing it. Don’t do it again. After all, I love you too.” She walked out.

  Hawkins took a drink of beer and it tasted better now. He leaned back in his chair as he reviewed all his recent decision points. He didn’t like some of the decisions made, but he already knew that without doing a review. There are times in life when choices have to be made, and you don’t like any of the available options. The only thing you can do is to be pissed off there isn’t a better choice, then you make the decision from the list of available options, and then move on.

  He recalled his thoughts regarding 20-20 hindsight in the clinic room with Cathy and Anastasia. He now decided he needed to reconsider his employment of it. It was true he never did use it to lay blame on anyone. Anyone but himself. Maybe it was time to quit using hindsight to do that. Something to think about. He took another swig from his bottle before bringing his computer online and going through the backlog of work waiting on his screen. He also had to send a message to his flotilla.

  Chapter 29

  Baby Doll and Samantha sat in the officers’ mess for the evening meal. Samantha wore brand new medical clothes recently tailored for her. Baby Doll thought she might outgrow them in a hurry considering the way she could pack away the food. She smiled as she watched Samantha buzz through a loaded plate.