Of course the pirate was already tracking the missiles fired by our escorting Patrol boat and would probably have been able to knock all of those out before they could batter down his shields. Our additional missiles though, quickly overwhelmed his point defence and the explosions were effectively blinding him as more ordnance started finding its way through his defences, eventually overwhelming his shields. As I expected, we simply did not have enough fire power to be able to destroy him, or for that matter, to even slow him down much but we were able to do as I expected and wanted, which was to cause him to bleed a little.
We seemed to have made him angry as he became much more aggressive, ramping up his acceleration to his maximum and firing on us. I could see, this pirate Captain was someone who let his temper rule his actions. By now, he was not even bothering to dodge the rail gun rounds we were sending his way. This time though, his fire was not anywhere near as disciplined as it was when he tried shooting at us previously. He was not firing his missiles very effectively either as the firing pattern seemed to be quite ragged and not of a weight that we saw as a serious threat as it was easily handled by our point defence. This continued for nearly five minutes though we noticed improvement during each and every one of those five minutes till once again he had bought himself under control and was nearly in a position where he could do some serious damage to us. It appeared he lost some missile tubes and perhaps some gun batteries but not enough to stop him. We hadn’t been able to do observable damage to his main engines or to his maneuvering thrusters.
Our point defence quickly became increasingly active as the weight of fire from the pirate increased with his improved discipline. We resorted to firing all our main energy weapons in a sort of scattergun approach, hoping to destroy some of his ordnance before it came close enough for the standard point defence to deal with it. We even had some limited success with this tactic but we still had an increasing weight of fire bearing down on us as time passed. We started having hits on our shields as missiles and other ordnance made it past our, and the patrol boats point defence networks. I signaled the Patrol boat to let him know it was time for us to shift up a couple of kilometres. We began a short count down then together our two ships fired their lateral thrusters and moved out of the line of fire for at least some of the pirate’s ordnance. This gave us a short respite while the pirate reacquired us and once again targeted us. The next time we moved to port by five kilometres. The weapons fire from when the pirate targeted on us most recently had only just started to impact our shields when we were once again out of his line of fire. Of course, we were not able to do much to escape his missiles but at least the available point defence could concentrate exclusively on them, giving us time to allow our shields to regenerate a little.
Of course, we couldn’t do this indefinitely so fairly soon we had the full weight of their fire concentrated on us once again. The shield strength steadily decreased and then a missile slipped through the point defence, severely stressing the shields. By now, the shields were only at about ten percent capacity. We, along with the Patrol boat, prepared another shift then executed it, once again moving away from the line of fire from the pirate’s rail gun. Besides watching what was happening outside the ship, I was also watching the crew, observing how they reacted to the situation. I had to admit, this crew were still performing superbly, I was proud of them, as even now, when things were looking decidedly bad for us, they were performing their duties in a calm and professional manner. There was no panic, no unnecessary movement or loud noises, just a tremendously competent crew performing their duties as well as anyone could ever wish for.
Suddenly, another ship appeared off the pirate’s port forward quarter. This new ship seemed to appear out of nowhere. This was the first time I ever saw what could be achieved with a micro jump. Of course, I’d heard of them, even read about them as I looked at the information available on FNS Destiny’s libraries, but they were rarely used because the ship performing the manoeuvre ran a small risk of materialising somewhere and being subjected to serious bombardment before they could raise their shields. They would not even be able to jump away because the jump engines would be depleted by the jump in, needing time to recharge. The new ship was FNS Shanonah, she arrived in time and in the perfect position to remove the heat from us. As soon as she appeared, even before her shields were fully up, she launched a salvo of twenty missiles and fired all the main guns she could bring to bear on the pirate. Some of her point defence even picked off a few missiles that were being fired in our direction.
The pirate was taken completely by surprise and seemed to stagger under the onslaught. His main engines and maneuvering thrusters flaring brightly as he tried to turn away from FNS Shanonah so he could run. His attempt to run was completely in vain and he was unsuccessful in his efforts. The Shanonah had appeared close enough that the pirate had no hope of stopping all, or even a significant percentage of the incoming ordnance. Explosions began to ripple down the side of the pirate ship as his shields were quickly overwhelmed, then he seemed to lose power and began to tumble through space. Minutes later, the pirate ship began ejecting escape pods as the people on board her tried to escape. The Shanonah ceased fire but kept her shields up as she backed off before waiting. Our communications panel lit up with an incoming call from the Captain of the FNS Shanonah, Captain Nahala, a member of the Codai people.
Captain Nahala said, “Greetings Captain Gordon, I am Captain Nahala, commander of FNS Shanonah. I salute you.”
I was surprised a little at his words but tried to give him the respect I thought he deserved. I replied in a way I hoped he would not see as offensive, “Greetings Captain Nahala, please be patient with me while I try to address you properly, I am Captain Colin Gordon of FNS Destiny, and I salute you. Your entrance and the way you dealt with the pirate were perfect.”
He replied, “Thank you Captain, I apologise for our delay in arriving. We had to travel far enough from a gravity well stopping us from performing our micro-jump. This delayed us a while longer than we hoped.”
“No apologies are necessary Captain,” I said, “you arrived in time to save us and that is all that matters. Would you like some assistance in recovering the people in those escape pods or in boarding the pirate vessel looking for any survivors who may still be aboard. We rescued Lady Conti from the last ship we boarded.”
He laughed before replying to me, “You and your crew need to concentrate on finding your way safely to Cotoni Station. When this is over, I will be honoured if you would agree to meet with me. I have much I would like to ask about your voyage. I have seen some of your logs already but I am sure there is much more I do not know.”
I simply said, “Captain Nahala, I would be both pleased and honoured to meet you if this is possible. I suspect though, that I will be in prison. If you have read the logs, I suspect you will understand why.”
He simply laughed and cryptically said, “Perhaps” before he cut the connection.
I called the Patrol boat to check on their status and tell them they could pull away a little if they wished. Their reply was a simple acknowledgment and then they moved out to give us some room. We were still about thirty-five hours from the fourth planet and our planned slingshot and aero braking manoeuvre so I checked with Engineering on our current reaction mass reserves. Thankfully, our usage to this point was still well below projections. I’d expected to need to dodge about a lot more before help could arrive but the timely arrival of the FNS Shanonah removed the need for much of the planned maneuvering.
We still had quite a while to wait before we needed to do any maneuvering so I called a replacement crew up to take over on the bridge and give the current bridge crew time for a break. Anne came onto the bridge and informed me I should go eat. I agreed with her so I rose to leave for the mess. When I rose she leant towards me and told me I should catch a little sleep as well. I agreed to sleep after eating as I did not envisage much happening for some time now. I made no detours on
the way to the mess and once I’d eaten I returned to my quarters for some rest. When I woke, I showered before going directly to the bridge to check on progress. Everything was fine so I headed back down to the mess. I did not know where Anne was but assumed she was asleep. I’d just selected my food and was walking back towards a table to eat when I received an urgent page to the bridge. I immediately dropped the food into the waste bin and headed straight to the bridge to see what the problem was. When I arrived, there was an open channel on the subspace transceiver. The com-tech told me the Commanding Officer for the entire system, Admiral Hanadon, was waiting to speak to me.
As soon as he saw me he seemed to smile then said, “Hello Captain Gordon, I am Admiral Hanadon. I am pleased you survived your encounter with that pirate. Captain Nahala has already filed a preliminary report on the action. He tells me he was very impressed with your performance.”
I replied, “Thank you for that Admiral but I think you know I do not really deserve the title of Captain. I am just a man trying to help the Federation and its citizens by bringing FNS Destiny home.”
Hanadon smiled again, this time it definitely was a smile, then said to me, “Whether you accept it or not, right now you are the Captain of FNS Destiny. The reason I have contacted you is to ask a favour of you. I would like to ask you if you could send me fifteen of your Troopers and Lady Conti, along with her party please. I have an immediate need for the Troopers and there are some political implications requiring me to see the Lady as quickly as possible.”
I said, “Of course Sir, though you should know I fully intend to surrender myself to your security forces as soon as I can. When do you want me to dispatch them, where to and how will they make the transit? Right now, we only have our shuttles and they would not be any faster than we will be.”
He replied, “I have a task I cannot risk for my local Troopers right now. I have another Patrol boat on an intercept course with your ship. It will be at your location in five hours. Could you arrange for these people to be transferred to your current escort as soon as you can please. I think by the time it is ready to leave, the other one will be very close and able to take up the escort duties soon after.”
I said, “Of course Sir, I will start contacting the relevant people immediately and have a shuttle transfer them as soon as possible. Does your request include Ensign Fraser? She is a member of Lady Conti’s party but is acting as my XO at the moment.”
He told me that no, Ensign Fraser should stay with me for now as the ship was dangerously understaffed as it was, particularly with officers. He then asked me to patch him through to the Patrol boat so they could be given their orders. I signaled for the com-tech to do as he asked then paged Anne to the bridge to help me make the necessary arrangements.
While I was waiting for her, I contacted Shasi and Ani to ask them to form a squad with at least one of them to lead it to go ahead to Cotoni Station. I told them who they needed to report to when they arrived and advised them the Admiral wasn’t sure which of his Troopers could be trusted for whatever job he had in mind. I told them until they had a better idea of what was going on over at the Station, they should use a cover story indicating they were acting as a security detail for Lady Conti. Soon after I finished instructing Ani and Shasi, Anne arrived on the bridge so I told her about the Admirals request including the fact he wanted her to remain with me at least till we reached the station. She suspected it had something to do with some of the corruption issues Lady Conti was looking into during her tour. She agreed to organise the Lady’s party for transfer to the Patrol boat while I arranged for the shuttle to be readied and a crew made available. In all, it took nearly four hours before the transfers were completed and the Patrol boat pulled away making a least time course for Cotoni Station. At least now I thought, some of us would be able to make it to the station safely, even if FNS Destiny couldn’t for some unforeseen reason.
About thirty minutes later, the new Patrol boat arrived to take up her escort duties for us as we continued on our way toward the fourth planet. On arrival, her Captain made contact so he and I could exchange pleasantries and he could confirm our intentions. Once we were finished with our discussions I asked our com-tech patch the Captain of the new Patrol boat through to the station via the subspace transceiver so he could report in and have his orders confirmed. While the com-tech was working on the patch, Conti Station contacted us to let me know they would be able to have tugs standing by to assist us with docking when we were close enough for them to latch on to us.
FNS Destiny’s crew settled into their normal routine as we continued on our way to the fourth planet. As part of that, they continued to put the ship into order so she actually looked like a Navy ship and not a garbage scow. By now, engineering had been able to rig a refrigerated compartment to give us a little extra morgue space and the bodies we’d stored out near the outer hull were being moved into there. I made sure the bodies of the pirates and those of FNS Destiny’s crew were still kept separated and the crew were clearly tagged as such. I also checked to make sure the shields would hold up during the planned aero braking manoeuvre and engineering confirmed they were currently regenerating and would hold. They did say the temperature in some of the compartments near the outer hull may become a little too warm, not uninhabitable, just very uncomfortable but beyond that they did not expect any problems. Not for the first time, and not for the last, I ran through the entire manoeuvre with navigation and the helm.
In the end, Anne shook her head before taking me by the arm and guiding me off the bridge for a tour around the ship. After we completed the rounds of the ship, she took me to the mess where she watched over me to make sure I ate. I had no problem with any of her ministrations because I’d missed my last meal when I was called to the bridge just after I selected my food and by now was beginning to feel very hungry indeed. I am fairly certain the mess staff always let Eri or Anne know if I hadn’t been in there for a while and I am also sure they’d told Anne about me not having a chance to eat my last meal. After I’d eaten, Anne and I completed the inspection of the ship then she suggested I try to sleep for a while. I agreed because I was beginning to suffer from exhaustion. We were so close to safety and my body and brain were beginning to rebel at all the stress I’d been putting them through. Thankfully, I did manage to sleep for a while.
After I woke, I was informed we’d received a brief subspace message informing us Conti and her party had arrived safely at Cotoni Station. Much later, I found out there was more to the message than just this, but the information was kept from me at the time because it was considered better by both the Admiral, and Ensign Fraser if I didn’t know, at least not just then. I have never really understood why, but for some reason it seemed I was at the centre of pirate activity, always on the receiving end of it and this made me interesting to those who were trying to fight the pirates. Apparently, the Admiral thought the pirates had managed to infiltrate his security apparatus on the station and when I reached the station, he planned to use me as bait in an effort to encourage the traitors to show their hand. This was the reason why the Admiral wanted my fifteen Troopers. He wanted someone who he thought he could trust to watch my back because for some reason, while he was prepared to use me to his own ends, he did not plan on leaving me unprotected.
In addition to the Troopers from FNS Destiny, he’d already quietly imported someone from the core worlds who was carrying out a covert investigation, so far, with only very limited success. Nobody had been arrested yet but there were some strong indicators that something was seriously wrong. My arrival, just happened to have perfect timing for the Admiral’s needs. In hindsight, I have no problem with the Admirals approach, he was simply doing something that needed doing. As it turned out, I had to suffer a little pain in the process, OK, a lot of pain, but in the end, both he, and the Federation have more than made up for it. When the Admiral explained the situation and asked me to volunteer, I did so without hesitation. Admittedly I had some self
ish reasons for doing so, like no execution or prison, a useful and productive role in the Federation and others. Since then, Hanadon and I have become good friends, enjoying meals together, discussing points of mutual interest and generally enjoying each other’s company.
As we approached the fourth planet, the navigation people passed some minor course changes to the helm that were intended to set us up properly for our slingshot and aero braking manoeuvre. As the time counted down, I ordered everybody into the ships core, away from the outer hull and had the ship secured for maneuvering. When we finally began the maneuver, I had our remaining passengers, including all the prisoners, and the ship’s crew as safe as I could possibly make them.
From the jump point, FNS Destiny had followed a long curved trajectory in towards the fourth planet. The slingshot maneuver required us to approach the planet from behind and slightly to one side. If we did it correctly, the ship would do a partial orbit around the planet before escaping the planet and heading back in relation to the planets orbital direction, thus reducing the speed of FNS Destiny in relation to the system primary and Cotoni Station. The aero braking would reduce the speed even more, as we would use the resistance of the atmosphere to convert some of our kinetic energy to heat. When we approached the planet, we were traveling at the a little over the maximum jump speed because we were falling into the planets gravity well and picking up speed. Finally, we dipped down into the upper reaches of the planet’s atmosphere and the ship began buffeting as she slammed through the gases making up the upper atmosphere. Plasma fire streamed out behind us as we raced through the upper atmosphere, super-heating and ionising the atmospheric gasses. If anyone was observing the display from the planet’s surface, the sight would have been an incredibly spectacular fireworks display. This planet was however, not inhabited, having an atmospheric pressure that was too low and didn’t contain enough oxygen, at only about three percent, to sustain the higher forms of life.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 41
